It's Just a Trick of the Moonlight
by Sage Londyn
Summary: Aubrie lives in social obscurity with her friends; Scott and Stiles until everything changes after meeting Derek Hale, who can't seem to keep his distance from her. He's dark and mysterious with a touch of danger in the air around him; everything she knows she should run from. But things aren't always what they seem, not when Brie has some secrets of her own. –Starts in season 1-
1. Another Endless Game

**It's Just a Trick of the Moonlight**

**Chapter One – Another Endless Game**

_Here comes the night, when all the ghosts come out._

_I'm haunted by everything that reminds me of my sin…_

_I feel it's all slowing down somehow, but those lights above are racing by; it's a trick of the moonlight._

_It's a trick of the moonlight._

_Here lies the ground, that's swallowed all its found._

_I can hear them, they're singing out strong, a tribute to what's went wrong._

_Trick of the Moonlight – Gareth Dunlop_

* * *

><p>Pausing at the edge of the stream running through the woods, my eyes darted back and forth looking for a safe way to cross that didn't involve me being up to my ankles in freezing cold water.<p>

Almost as if they didn't see me, my two best friends trekked right through the water like it was nothing.

"I can't believe you were out here looking for a dead body last night!" My nose wrinkled in disgust at the thought.

"Come on Brie." Scott said, motioning for me to follow them as Stiles called out, "You're the one who's always saying nothing interesting happens here." He had a goofy grin on his face as he spoke, knowing exactly how against this idea I was.

It had been a few years since I'd moved in with my aunt and uncle in Beacon Hills, a boring little town shrouded in dense woods. But when I said I wished something interesting would happen –I certainly didn't mean a murder.

"And it was half of a body." Stiles corrected, his eyes wide with excitement as he looked over to Scott with an obvious look of jealousy on his face that he'd been wearing since Scott told us he found the body the night before.

"Half a body just makes it so much worse!" I argued. What kind of murderous freak not only kills someone, but cuts them in half?

"It makes it so much more awesome!" Stiles' voice cut through my thoughts like a jagged knife.

Hanging my head I sighed and muttered, "Why did I even agree to come with you guys?"

"Because you don't have a car and you hate taking the bus." They said in unison, not even looking over to the other.

They know me too well.

When I refused to move from the safe, dry bank of the stream Scott complained, "Aubrie, come on. We have to find my inhaler those things are more expensive than you'd think."

Letting out a sigh and crossing my arms over my chest trying to hold a serious expression as Scott called out, "She's afraid to cross the water."

"I am not!" A laugh breaks through despite my attempts to remain in control, "I'm already cold and if I get my feet and legs wet, I'll freeze to death."

My eyes are glued to them, my gaze unwavering with the hope that one of them will side with me and we just leave the woods.

"Come on, lets go… she'll be fine." Stiles said with a shrug as if he was not offering me up for a sacrifice to our towns murderer.

"Yeah, I'm sure the killer isn't out here or anything." Scott added in, playing along with his best friend, "I mean why would he stick around… not like there's lots of places to hide or anything…"

"Guys!"

With a helpless expression I watched as they both turn to leave and slowly that third wheel feeling starts to creep in. It's not always easy when your two best friends have been as close as brothers almost their entire lives.

Alright, I guess I'm on my own –with that thought I straightened my stance, pulling in a deep breath and spreading my arms out to the sides. With any luck, my purple high heels won't betray me and I'll be able to maneuver my way across the water.

"Come on princess."

Looking up I see Stiles headed back for me, walking back through the frigid water and standing in it as he turned to put his back towards me. When he lowered down some, I smiled as I wrapped my arms around his neck and hoped up on his back. I can feel him sway slightly before he regains his own balance and holds onto my legs at his sides. My savior.

"You really thought we were going to leave you?" Scott questions with an amused look as Stiles gets me safely across the water.

I smile at him, practically beaming as I shake my head back and forth and all traces of feeling like the third wheel vanish into the chilly fall breeze.

Have I mentioned I have the greatest friends?

My feet were barely back on solid, dry land before I was practically having to stumble over the raised tree roots emerging from the cold earth to catch up with them.

"I've got other weird things happening too." Scott admitted, his voice was laced with worry with a hint of a whine in his tone.

"Like what?" I ask, thinking everything he's already told us sounds strange enough.

Stiles must have been thinking the same thing because he spoke up, "You mean besides lacrosse apparently happening in slow motion for him?" His sentence ended in a groan as he stumbled over his own feet while trying to walk up a large hill.

I'm in heels and I'm still more coordinated than he is.

"I'm hearing stuff I shouldn't be able to hear…and smell things."

My eyes darted from the ground up to Scott as I asked, "Smell things?"

"Yeah!" He nodded, almost seeming frantic in his actions as he explained, "Like the mint mojito gum in Stiles' pocket."

Coming to a stop I turned to face the more eccentric of my two friends with my arms over my chest, I'd asked him for a piece of gum in fourth period and he swore he didn't have any.

Reaching into his pocket Stiles argued, "I don't even have any mint mojito gum in…" His voice trailed off when he pulled his hand back out there was a half unwrapped piece of green gum.

How the hell could Scott smell a single piece of gum in someone else's pocket? My friends have always been a little weird, but not _this_ weird.

My voice came out a little leery as I questioned, "And you think this is happening because you got bitten by something in the woods last night?"

"Yeah. What if it's like an infection, like my body's flooding with adrenaline before I go into shock or something?" Scott rambled, worrying out loud.

Stiles might have been a spaz and more eccentric than Scott, but whenever something went wrong Scott was the one who got all panicky and seemed to not even be able to function.

How either of them survived without me for so many years is a mystery all in itself.

"I could be dying!" Scott exclaimed louder than before as he stared at me, clearly waiting on me to say something to tone the situation down and ease his mind.

"I don't really think it works like that-" I started to say, before being cut off by Stiles as he shook his head back and forth, "I actually think I've heard of this before… it's a specific kind of infection."

"Are you serious?" Scott's words rushed out, a tinge of a squeak to his voice.

Looking over to Stiles my brows lowered as I tried to decipher the look in his eyes –was he being serious or was this all a joke?

"Yeah. Yeah, I think it's called… lycanthropy." Stiles said.

Oh. My. God. A werewolf joke! That's what he's going for? Try as I might I can't contain my laugher.

Drawing Scott's attention back to me he shot me an unamused look as he hissed, "This isn't funny Brie, I could be dying!"

Wrong you are Scott, if you'd spent the summer hanging out with Stiles and me watching the latest horror movies and even going to see old movies at the small theater on 56th street instead of training nonstop for lacrosse –you'd know exactly how funny it was.

But with his last remark to me I held my silence watching him squirm and worry even more as he exclaimed, "Is that bad?"

Another roar of laughter escaped my lips as Scott seemed so oblivious.

"Oh, yeah. It's the worst." Stiles nodded, he was trying to keep a straight face but with my trained eyes I spotted the side of his mouth twitching as he fought back a smile; I'm sure my continued laughing wasn't helping his situation at all.

"It only flares up once a month though, right?" I manage to get my laughter under control –at least the for the moment, so I can play along.

This joke is just too good to pass up and Scott doesn't even have a clue.

Beaming a proud smile Stiles nodded, "On the night of the full moon."

"Really?" I asked when it was clear Scott was no closer to understanding what was happening.

Clearly the joke was wasted on him.

Also seeing that Scott still wasn't getting it, Stiles raised his eyebrows and did his best impression of a wolf howl.

"You guys are terrible friends." Scott complained to us, before slapping Stiles' chest and almost knocking him over and walking away.

I grudgingly followed after him as Stiles clumsily trekked through the leaves behind us and said, "Hey! You're the one who heard a wolf howling."

When he finally caught up, Stiles nudged my arm and continued the joking as he said, "Brie, I think we should join shop class and melt down all the silver we can find… Friday's a full moon."

I laughed but my attention was drawn to my other friend as he came to a stop and spun in a slow circle in a clearing, his eyes tracing the ground.

"Scott?" I asked, for the first time realizing exactly how deep into the woods we'd ventured.

I just lived up the road from the preserve but I wasn't familiar with the woods at all, and that thought made my skin crawl and the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

What if the freaking killer _is_ still out here?

I almost jumped when Scott said, "This is the spot… this is where I was when I found the body and dropped my inhaler."

I watched as he got down on all fours and started moving the leaves around. At first glance I didn't see the inhaler, but I was also thankful I didn't see the body either.

Kicking some leaves and sticks around, I yelled over my shoulder, "I don't see half of a body, Scott."

"Maybe the killer came back and moved the body." Stiles guessed with an excited rush on the words, and I could practically hear him internally clapping with delight.

"If he did, I hope he left my inhaler… those things are like eighty bucks." Scott groaned.

I turned around until I was facing them as I continued to walk backwards, still searching for my friends' inhaler, not able to hold back as I pointed out, "You guys are sick! Someone's not only dead… but cut in half and you're worried about the price of your inhaler."

I watched as Stiles laughed and looked at me, but Scott didn't even looked up as he agreed in his own way with what I was saying, "Yeah, I am. Because if I don't find this thing I'm going to be the next dead body… either cause of an asthma attack or my mom killing me. I honestly don't know which would be worse."

My eyes drifted back down to the leaf covered earth before I sighed and looked back up to my friends about to ask if we could abort this mission and go home but Stiles threw me off when he started to mumble out some indescribable noises as he stared past me and hit Scott's shoulder several times.

"Stiles, what the hell-" I started to ask as I turned around but made the error of not watching where I was going and I ran right into something so solid I would have thought it was a tree if I didn't catch the subtle lingering notes of cologne in the air as it whisked past me through the trees.

Grudgingly slow I raised my head to see who I'd ran into; I think I knew before I ever even looked at him that this moment was going to change my life forever –I could feel it in my bones.

I can only imagine how wide my eyes must have been as I saw the guy I'd accidently ran right into. He was standing like a stone, dressed in all black and suddenly there was an overwhelming sense of uncertainty and danger in the air, a symptom of imposing presence. But try as I might, I couldn't back up; I couldn't bring myself to take even a single step backwards when our eyes locked for the first time.

"Oh god, I-I'm… I'm sorry." I tried say, but my words were jumbled as I stuttered through my failed attempt at an apology. Come on Brie, pull yourself together.

His eyes remained locked in an wavering stare with mine, he was silent and his stoic expression gave nothing away. I'm normally pretty good at reading people, but I couldn't even decode the look in his eyes –at first there was a look almost verging on shock but he'd quickly shielded it and stared at me with a domineering expression. Clearly he expected to intimidate me into the point of submission where I'd back away from him, but I couldn't have even if I'd tried too.

I willed myself to keep up with his stare, to not back down or even look away for a second. But my eyes helplessly fell to his lips as he opened his mouth to speak.

"What are you doing here?"

His voice was gruff and his tone unforgiving.

What am I doing here? What is he doing here, and who does he think he is?

I wanted to say something back, verbally assault him the way it felt like his words had physically slapped me –but no sounds came out. Not a single damn word.

Mentally I cursed my heart as it picked up speed, I wasn't sure if it was because he was lurking around the woods the way a killer would or if it was because of the way he kept his eyes glued to me; picking up on my every movement.

And if it wasn't humanly impossible, I would have sworn he could even hear my racing heart when I saw his eyes drift downward towards my chest for just a moment before he looked back up and rudely asked in a louder tone than before, "Huh?"

Okay, forget the verbal assault now I want to actually hit him with something. Not that I had to power to do either as I continued to stand there helpless.

Here it came. The blood rushed to my face, my cheeks growing hot both from anger and from embarrassment at suddenly becoming mute.

Did these tree's offering a canopy shield from the sun get taller or am I actually shrinking down to the size of a pea?

A small gasp slid from my glossed lips when I felt someone's hand on my arm, and quickly my gaze snapped to the side. Relief flooding through my entire system at seeing it was just Scott.

He and Stiles hadn't abandoned me, a fact I wasn't so sure of only moments before when I didn't hear either of them talking behind me.

With a firm grip on my arm, Scott pulled me back until I was standing between my two best friends.

I glanced from side to side at them –was I the only one thinking we should all take off running in opposite directions. There's only one of him and three of us. With a sigh I realized I'd probably be the one who didn't get away, I just had to wear brand new heels on the first day of school. Then again Stiles does good to walk across a flat surface…

"What are you doing here?" He repeated, his threatening steps echoing through my mind as he stepped closer to us.

"Uh…" Stiles breathed and I looked over at him as he nervously rubbed a hand over the back of his neck before mumbling, "Sorry man…"

Sorry? What do we have to apologize for? We have just as much a right to be out here as he does.

In a moment of either complete bravery or naive stupidity I did what any other half-sane person with a possible death wish would do and repeated his own question back to him, "Us? What are _you_ doing here?"

Brushing my brunette hair from my face and clearing my throat while trying to ignore the shocked expressions my friends were giving me from either side, I managed to say, "Well?" in a tone much stronger than I was feeling.

"Aubrie!" I hear Scott hiss at me, before his hand was back on my arm –ready to drag me away if we needed to make a break for it.

As if Scott scolding me wasn't bad enough, Stiles leaned over and whispered, "Yeah, don't… don't do that." When I looked over to him his face was scrunched like he was preparing himself for a verbal lashing –from me or the dark, threatening stranger, I'm not sure which.

Thanks for having my back guys. Have I mentioned I've got the worst best friends?

"This is private property." He voiced a warning, as he came another step closer. It was clear the message was for all of us but his eyes were glued to me.

"S-sorry! We didn't know." Stiles said, always quick to apologize for anything and everything, especially when feeling threatened.

I could see Scott nodding out of the corner of my eye before he started to say, "Yeah, we were just looking for something but…" Even standing right beside him, I could barely make out what he was saying. "Uh, just forget it." He finished.

My eyes darted from side to side in disbelief at how quickly they both were to just back down. With a slight eye roll I took it upon myself to admit, "We were just looking for an asthma inhaler."

But again clearly neither of them agreed with my way of handling the situation as Scott nudged me and Stiles' voice climbed a few octaves as he fearfully announced, "Not that any of us are asthmatic. Nope, we're all three capable of running away…" I didn't even need to look over at him to know he was cringing from his inability to stop speaking as he added, "Very, very fast."

Reaching into his pocket the stranger pulled something out and threw it to Scott so fast that I couldn't even tell it was his inhaler until he caught it and we all three looked down.

When we looked back up; he was gone.

"Dude!" Stiles exclaimed, reaching around me to grab onto Scott's arm and almost knocking me over in the process, he continued, "That was Derek Hale, you remember him, right? He's only like a few years older than us."

"I don't remember him." I manage to say, my senses still on red alert as I glanced around searching for any sign of where he'd disappeared to.

"You wouldn't, he moved away from here before you came to Beacon Hills."

When Scott and I neither one said anything, Stiles continued, "His family –they all burned to death in a fire like ten years ago."

Swallowing hard, I looked over at him and breathed, "Oh my god, that's horrible."

"I wonder what he's doing back?" Scott practically stole the words from my mouth.

"I don't know." Stiles sighed.

I looked over as he clapped his hands together once, before jumping up and pointing out, "But just think about it. He shows back up at the same time a body is found… just let that sink in."

"You think he's the killer?" I questioned, looking over to him.

"I think he has several possible murderer qualities… like creeping around the woods and trying –but failing to scare teenagers." Stiles said.

I couldn't hold back a laugh as I turned to him, "You weren't scared at all, not in the slightest?"

"Of course not." Stiles quickly said, flashing me a smile as he quickly covered, "I was worried for you."

"Is that so?" I arched a brow.

Nodding he glanced to Scott and said, "The body you found was female, right?"

He nodded, but I could tell by looking at him he wasn't in the joking mood anymore.

"I gotta work tonight, let's just get out of here." He said as he nodded for us to follow him out of the woods.

My legs wanted to move, I wanted to go with them. But something kept drawing my attention back the other way. I couldn't see Derek anywhere, but I could feel his eyes on me still as if he were standing right in front of me again.

"Aubrie!"

With a small gasp I looked over to see Stiles and Scott waiting on me to catch up with them.

After surveying our surroundings once more, I slowly turned and followed them as they guided me back out of the woods and to the safety of Stiles' jeep.

**~(Later that week)~**

After I'd finished curling my naturally wavy hair, I laid the curling iron down on the top of my dresser.

I was supposed to be riding with Stiles to the party that night and I probably had about five minutes to figure out what shoes I was going to wear now –getting my hair to actually hold the curl had taken longer than I'd expected.

With a small sigh, I started to cross my room until something caught my eye from outside of the large window facing my backyard that lined the woods.

Oh my god, someone was out there –someone had just moved out of sight behind a freaking tree and I was home alone because my aunt went to pick my uncle up from the airport.

Dropping to the floor under the window in an attempt to hide myself from view, I pulled in a deep breath that brought with it a terrifying realization; I was next. I was going to be the next body found cut in half in the woods.

Focus Brie, come on Aubrie Beck focus.

Trying to calm my racing heart, I looked around my room trying to remember where I'd left my cellphone.

But before I could the door opened to my room, damn neared giving me a heart attack until I saw it was just Stiles. He always seemed to be in the right place at the right time, exactly when I needed him there.

His eyebrows lowered in confusion as he stared at me and asked, "Brie… what the hell-"

"Get down!" I practically shouted at him waving my arms wildly, until he dropped down to the floor without another question.

Even through the fear and seriousness of the situation it took everything I had to hold in a laugh as he broke into a frantic scrambled crawl until he collapsed against the wall beside me, knocking the back of his head against the windowsill.

With a hiss of pain he rubbed the back of his head and looked at me expectantly.

"Someone's watching me… I saw someone right before they ducked out of sight behind a freaking tree! But I saw them!" I quickly explained, wondering if I was going to have to repeat myself when I heard my words come out in a jumbled mess.

But he understood me apparently because his eyes almost bulged out of his head as he gasped. "Who was it?"

"Oh my god, I don't know Stiles! Did you miss the part where I said they went behind a tree?"

"Right, right!" He breathed shaking his head.

"Are they still there?" I asked closing my eyes and preparing myself for the answer.

"I don't know… look and see."

"You look!"

"Me?" He squeaked, "What if it's a serial killer or something?"

"Fine, let's both look." I offered a compromise as I turned around and got on my knees so I could raise up and look out into the back yard.

He followed suit and we exchanged looks, silently agreeing that on the count of three we'd both look.

"One…two…three." He counted and I sprung up on our cue, my eyes moving around rapidly but I couldn't see anyone anymore.

With a small sigh of relief I breathed out, "I don't see them anymore, do you?"

"Nope." He answered, but when I looked over I saw he was still knelt down.

Really? I thought as I reached over and hit him on the arm, a small punishment for what he did in my opinion.

"What?" He groaned rubbing where I'd struck him, "All I'm saying is if that was the killer… we don't need him seeing the both of us. Someone has to go for help."

"So what are you saying? While I'm being murdered and cut in half you're going to leave me to get help?"

I rose to my feet and pulled my blinds closed as Stiles stood up with me and argued, "Well, I can't help you if we both get cut in half."

I shook my head, Stiles Stilinski is probably the only person on the face of this earth that I could have a conversation like this with.

With my arms out to the sides and a look of disbelief on my face I blatantly pointed out, "Good god, Stiles. If I get cut in half than no one can help me because I'd be dead!"

"Okay, okay." He nodded, a look of surrender on his face as he added, "I'll try to help you before the killer cuts in you into pieces."

Shooting him a look I stepped into my closet and surveyed the multilevel shoe rack trying to figure out which pair of heels would go best with the dress I'd picked out for the night.

I'd just narrowed it down to two pairs; one white and one a cream color when stiles asked, "Hey Brie, did you hear about that girl?"

Walking out of my closet with the two pairs of heels in hand, I see him peeking through the slats of the venetian blinds.

"What girl?"

The hard plastic made a snap noise as he let go and pieces snapped back into their usual spot as he turned to face me, "It's sad really. She would have made it if she'd just gone to the party with her friends, but instead she spent an hour trying to decide between two completely identical pairs of shoes and the killer got into her house…"

My jaw droped in response and he starts laughing.

"That's not funny, Stiles. You know if someone breaks in and kills me in my sleep, you're really going to feel like crap."

Looking down to the shoes in hand, I tossed the cream color pair back into the closet and pull the white ones on as I point out, "And these shoes aren't the same at all. They were entirely different colors."

"Whatever you say princess." He responded in a teasing tone as he picked up my jacket off the foot of my bed and handed it to me.

I reached into the pockets happy to feel my cellphone in the right side pocket.

"I'm not a princess, stop calling me that." I said a touch of gravel in my tone as I looked at him.

Pausing at the doorway to my room, he dramatically motioned with both hands as he said, "Come on, you're chariot awaits."

"Your jeep is hardly a chariot." I pointed out with a laugh, knowing the comment with slightly offend him –he almost seemed to love his car more with every time something goes wrong with it.

"Hey!" He loudly said as I walked past him, "Don't dis the jeep, Brie. Don't ever dis my jeep."

**~()~**

"Here."

Turning around I smiled in thanks as I graciously accept the red, plastic up Stiles held out for me.

Leaning against the arm of the couch I looked into the cup, making sure it was only beer. I learned my freshman year of high school to never drink the punch at these parties –you never know how much alcohol they had put in it.

At least with beer I can keep track of how much I'm consuming so I don't wind up embarrassing myself by climbing up on a table and doing a horribly off key alcohol fueled rendition of Girls Just Want To Have Fun –again. Nope, once was enough for me with that.

"It's just beer." Stiles assured, with a knowing smile as he brought his own cup to his lips in an attempt to hide the expression on his face, but it was too late. I'd already seen it.

"Shut up." I hissed, hitting him on the arm as I lowered my head at the memories.

He didn't help matters any as he played innocent and asked, "What? Girls just wanna have fun, right?"

"Oh my god, Stiles!" I yelled hitting him harder than before.

I am never going to live that one down. Scott tried just as hard to forget that night as I did. His embarrassing moment was puking in front of the upper class first line lacrosse players in the middle of the kitchen.

But to Stiles –the one who had to drag us both of the party our freshman year, he always loved to bring it up and torment us with the humiliating memories.

Finally looking back up at him, I saw the frown on his lips as he watched Allison and Scott walk by on their way out of the crowded, claustrophobic feeling room with wall to wall teenagers.

"What's up?" I asked taking a small sip from my cup.

"I'm worried about Scott." He finally admitted, stepping closer as if he was worried someone was eavesdropping on us.

"What?" I gasped watching through the doorway as he and Allison walked hand and hand to a free spot by the pool to dance. "He made first line with lacrosse and I just saw him walk by a little with ago with Allison, who is freaking gorgeous by the way. I think Scott's doing fine." I pointed out, nodding towards the new couple.

Maybe jealous was more like it.

"Brie… I was up all night looking online and checking over these books I got from the library and I'm thinking the joke isn't really a joke at all anymore." He cautioned.

Okay, now he had my attention, as I tried to figure out what joke he was talking about. Either way the look on his face had me worried too.

"Look… there's something I didn't tell you because I didn't want to freak you out. But the lab reports came back and they found some hairs on the body…"

I couldn't even let him finish as I gasped, "So they know who the killer is?"

This is good news! If they know who the murderer is they'll be one step closer to finding him and then I can stop carrying a kitchen knife with me on my way to get the mail in the evening.

"No, they're still questioning people… even Derek Hale, but-"

"They guy who yelled at us in the woods?"

"Yes, Brie! Oh my god, yes… but you're not listening, it wasn't human hair they found on the body!"

I took a step back from him, with the way he was flailing his free arm it was only a matter of a time before he forgot there was a half full cup in the other –and I didn't want to wear his beer.

"They found… wolf hair." He admitted, an expression on his face like he was delivering the worst news he'd ever given anyone in his life.

"Okay…" I breathed, though it sounded more like a question.

"There haven't been wolves in California for over sixty years, Brie. It couldn't have been a wolf… it had to have been something else."

"Mhmm." I hum with my lip vibrating against the edge of the cup just barely touching my lip, I paused before taking a drink to question, "They found wolf hair on the body… and something bit Scott. I'd say if it howls like a wolf than it's-"

"A freaking werewolf."

The werewolf joke was funny the first time around, but it was losing it's hilarity every time he brought it back up over the past week.

Stiles' eyes drifted to the floor as he saw my expression and realized, "You don't believe me."

"You just don't know when to let something go." I agreed with a nod and empathetic expression.

"Tonight is a full moon… meaning that Scott's rage and bloodlust will be at an all-time high. And look around, there are tons of people here… they could be dead, like any minute. All of us, maimed and torn to shreds."

"Bloodlust?"

I stifled a laugh at the thought. Scott McCall is probably the last person at this party who'd get a case of bloodlust and start trying to kill everyone.

"Yeah, this is bad… he's cursed." Stiles nodded, seeming more upset by the second.

"I think you have a very active imagination and a touch of insomnia along with too much Adderall… which doesn't make for a good combination Stiles." I said, hoping my tone came out as apologetic and not harsh. He just always had a habit of getting caught up with something and not being able to let it go.

"You can't just stand there and pretend nothing strange is going on. You saw Scott magically get good at lacrosse, that doesn't just happen."

"Yeah, but he practiced all summer."

"How come he doesn't need his inhaler anymore then?" He pushed.

He was really not going to let this go. Werewolves and vampires are in movies and books, not in Beacon Hills, California.

"Maybe he grew out of it? My older sister was severely asthmatic as a kid but she grew out of it…" I quickly offered up an explanation, but it was just another case of my mouth firing off before my brain could filter what came out.

My eyes widened at my own words.

"Brie…" He quietly said, concern lining his face as he stepped closer to me.

No, no, no. I did not just say that… not here. Stiles knew I never talked about my sister.

"I just… I need some air." Was all I could manage to say as I pushed my cup of beer into his hand and rushed for the nearest exit.

By the time I got out of the door, my heart was racing in my chest like I'd just tried to run ten miles and my palms were clammy, my skin felt prickly and even the warm night air couldn't help me; stumbling around the pool and past Lydia and Jackson –who were making out on display for everyone to see. I made it over to the fence where I placed both hands on the top iron bar and leaned down, trying my best to take in a breath. But it wasn't happening, try as I might my lungs wouldn't inflate –as if the oxygen was really some toxic gas that my body was trying to reject.

Turning around I leaned against the fence, facing back to the party as I finally managed to take a breath and hold it deep inside my lungs.

But the relief was short lived when there was a loud bark from behind me, so loud I nearly jumped forward into the pool to take cover.

Slowly turning around, my eyes widened at what I saw; a large black dog with it's teen barred and his head lowered, barking viciously at me.

Holy shit… that dog could have easily jumped the fence if it wanted too.

But just as soon as the barking had started, it stopped and to my surprise slowly lowered it's head in submission as a small whine sounded from the now docile animal.

What the hell?

Looking around my eyes stopped on a familiar face illuminated by the fire pit just a few feet away from where I was standing.

Why is he at a high school party, seriously could he be any more creepy? Just lurking around the outside of a party and watching everyone with that intense stare of his.

I glance around for a moment, wondering if Scott or stiles had seen him. But my mistake was looking away for even a second, because when I looked back he was gone.

A little while later I headed back inside when I saw Scott rushing away from Allison, but when I'd made it outside of the front of the house I saw Stiles speeding off.

I took out my phone and texted him, but didn't get a response.

Sighing and tucking my phone back into my pocket, I started to wonder how I was getting home now until I saw my newest friend.

"Allison, hey! Do you know what happened? Stiles was supposed to be my ride home and he just bailed on me." I asked, jogging over to her as she stood on the sidewalk.

"I don't know." Allison admitted shaking her head, "Things were going great… and Scott just kind of rushed off, I think Stiles followed him."

I shook my head at her words, no matter how many years I'd hung out with the pair of lifelong best friends –I'd still never understand half of the things they did.

Cue the third wheel feeling again.

Motioning behind where I was standing Allison explained, "I guess Scott asked his friend to give me a ride home…"

Turning around my eyes widened as I saw Derek Hale again.

As her words sunk in I questioned, "Scott's friend?"

Crossing my arms over my chest I stared at him, waiting on a response.

"What's wrong?" Allison questioned, as she stepped closer to me and farther away from tall, dark and creepy.

I didn't say anything. At this point I had no idea why Derek was there, or why he was trying to masquerade as Scott's friend but I was going to find out.

In response to my silence, I saw Allison taking another step closer to me. "Um…" she breathed as she glanced down scratching the side of her head and offered, "I saw Lydia inside maybe she or Jackson could take us home…"

Ugh. A million ughs at the idea of being stuck in a car with Lydia and Jackson, not only did they both hate me just because I wasn't popular. But neither of them could keep their hands off the other for five minutes.

Derek gave us a smile, just a few expressions short of friendly and nodded towards a sleek black Camaro as he pointed out, "My car is right there, I can take you both home. It's no trouble."

And suddenly getting into a car with Derek didn't look like the worst option on the board anymore.

"Yeah, it's fine." I managed to say, completely catching both Derek and Allison off guard. I looked at him with a knowing smile and said, "Scott just didn't mention you were going to be at the party tonight."

He turned and started for his car and even though I knew better, I followed him.

So much for not getting into a car with a stranger, but that's mainly for kids right? Or at least that's what I told myself as I got to the passenger side of the car and opened the door.

Finding the latch on the side, I laid the seat down and started to climb into the back but Allison made a move at the same time.

Standing up we looked at each other. She was uncomfortable with the whole situation, that was easy enough to tell. But what she didn't know was I was just as uncomfortable as she was.

Damn this kind heart.

"Go on." I said, offering a smile which she gratefully returned before climbing into the backseat and leaving me up front with Derek, with only the console between us.

I'm definitely not so comfortable with this, I don't know this guy at all and there is a killer running around town.

Glancing over my shoulder to Allison, I wondered how strange it would look if I crawled into the backseat beside her.

I never got the chance as he sped off, the force of the acceleration catching me off guard and it must have startled Allison too because she gasped and looked at me.

Turning back around in my seat, I slowly reached over and grabbed the seatbelt, pulling it across me and fastening it as he asked Allison for directions to her house.

We were several minutes and just a few streets away from Allison's house that I shuddered with the realization that she as getting dropped off first, which was going to leave me alone with Derek on the drive across town to my house.

Oh shit… but then again, I was happy she'd be out danger. If we just so happened to be in the car with the crazed murderer, than it was my doing to begin with so I should be the one to get killed over it.

A chill ran up my spine at remembering the body in the woods had been cut in half.

Oh my god. If he kills me I hope I'm dead before he saws me in half. If he is going to kill me can I request that or something?

"Cold?"

His voice jolted me from my thoughts with the force a thousand volts of electricity.

Crap, crap did he see me almost jump out of my seat?

One glance at him confirmed my suspicion, he was now watching me and not the road

"Oh, um, yeah a little." I lied, watching as he reached a hand over and turned the heat on.

Great job, I thought. It was already an unusually warm night and now we're in the car with the heat on full blast. I wasn't shaking because I was cold, I was shaking because I have no idea what I could have gotten myself into.

Hearing movement from the backseat, I glanced back to see Allison pulling her black jacket off and fanning herself with her hand. She smiled politely, even though it couldn't have been more clear that she was burning up.

Looking back to the front of the car I said, "I think I'm warm enough now." Time to end our suffering from being in the same amount of heat that I'm sure was present in the seventh circle of hell, I reached for the dial at the same time he did.

Our hands brushed and on instinct I quickly pulled back, my heart picked up speed and I looked over at him with widened eyes. With barely a glance over at me, he shut the heater off as he pulled into Allison's driveway and put the car in park.

I practically threw the door open before trying to get out, with the realization that I was still wearing my seatbelt.

With a small, nervous chuckle I unclipped the seatbelt and jumped out of the car. I'm not normally this jumpy, but ever since someone was watching me before the party – I just couldn't seem to calm back down.

After saying bye to Allison, I put the seat back in it's normal position and sat down, pulling the door closed and almost feeling like I was signing my fate. Only this time, I managed to not jump when the automatic locks triggered when he put the car into drive.

I didn't even realize my hands were clutched into tight fists until I looked down and saw my white knuckles, I was nothing but a ball of nervous energy.

But one question was weighing too heavily on my mind to hold my silence any longer, "Why did you lie about being friends with Scott?"

"I didn't lie… I'm trying to help him." He sighed, as I now watched him instead of the road.

"Help him with what?" I asked.

I started to interrupt the conversation to tell him which way to turn at the stoplight, but I didn't need to –he turned the right way, like he already knew where he was going.

"It doesn't matter." He argued with me.

"It does, Scott's my friend and I don't know what you're doing. But I've been his friend for years and when Stiles said who you were, Scott didn't know you… so don't try to lie to me."

I'll be damned if I'm going to sit here and let him talk to me in that same tone he used in the woods.

"And honestly, it's a little strange. You show up where there was part of a dead body in the woods yelling at us, then you show up at a high school party where we were all at." I had to say it, I had to point it out.

"You think I killed someone?" He asked, as he neared my house and started to slow down for the turn.

Pulling my seatbelt off this time and getting to ready to make a break for it when he stopped I admitted, "I don't know… maybe."

"Okay." He breathed, "Then let me ask you something, if you think I'm a murderer… why did you get into a car with me?"

He pulled into my driveway and as soon as the doors unlocked I opened mine and sat there for a moment, still contemplating the answer to his question.

Why did I get into the car with some guy that I didn't know, who'd been nothing but rude to me and was now lying about knowing one of my best friends? Good question, Derek. It's such a good question, that I myself don't even have an answer.

Turning some, I faced admitted, "You know… I've had the strangest day. Before I went to the party… I saw someone just outside of my yard in the woods. But when I looked back –they were gone."

It might have been a shot in the dark, but oh well. I'm in too deep now to not continue with my questions.

"Why are you telling me this?" He asked, also turning in his seat to face me.

Our eyes locked and it took me a minute to finally find my words but then by some miracle I did and started to explain, "Because…"

"There's something I need to-" He started to say, cutting me off.

Quickly I cut him off as payback for irrupting me as I laid it all on the line, "I never told you where I live. You got directions to Allison's house from her… but you didn't need to ask me for directions."

And there it was, that guilty expression that graced his features for a mere second before he covered it with a look of annoyance as he sighed and looked down to the dashboard of his car.

"So it was you… why are you spying on me?"

"I wasn't spying on you."

"But you were outside of my house." I stated, knowing he couldn't lie his way out of this now.

"Look Aubrie, believe it or not I'm just trying to help… so just stay out of it." He asserted, his tone demanding like I should do exactly as he told me.

But I've never been one to follow the rules.

Then I realized something and in response my heartbeat hastened with fear. Again he looked over at me, his eyes falling briefly to the top of my dress before I pointed out, "Yeah, I uh, I never told you my name either."

I didn't give him a chance to respond as I pulled the keys from my pocket and got out of the car, walking in a fast pace towards my dark house.

Unlocking the door and rushing inside I slammed the door behind me, locked it and leaned against it holding my breath until I finally heard his car drive away.

Now I had a pile of questions and no shovel to start digging my way through it. Along with probably another hour or more before my aunt and uncle would be home.

But now I was sure of a few things; Stiles was getting an earful of it on Monday at school for ditching me. And for some reason, Derek Hale was either watching me or my house –possibly both.

Either way, I've never been one to just let a sleeping dog lie. So if he wanted to watch me, than I was going to find out why.

* * *

><p><strong>AN- Thank you all so much for reading! ^_^ This is a story that I wrote the first chapter to a while ago, but then decided I'd really love to try telling Brie's story from a first person point-of-view –so I had to rewrite everything.**

**On my profile is the link to a video I made to go along with this story, and also the link to my Tumblr!**

**I really hope you all really liked the first chapter, and I'd really love it if you'd take a few moments to leave a review and let me know what you thought and if you'd like to see more. ^_^**


	2. The Third Wheel

**It's Just a Trick of the Moonlight**

**Chapter Two – The Third Wheel**

* * *

><p>Gotcha! I thought as I spotted Stiles in the hallway clumsily shoving a mess of papers under the cover of the text book in his hands.<p>

With a determined expression, I walked over to him.

"Hey Stiles." I greeted with a wide smile.

Looking over his face lit up as he said, "Hey Brie!"

"Notice anything?" I asked, blinking innocently and peering at him.

"Uh…" His voice trailed off as he gave me a quick once over and nodded, "Yeah… new dress?"

Wrong.

"Nope." I reply shaking my head.

"You, uh… you did something different with your hair?"

Wrong again.

"Nope."

A completely dumbfounded look fell over his boyish features and he gave an apologetic shrug as he said, "I didn't wake up to any alerts on my phone so it's not your birthday…"

"Ugh!" I groan as I reached past him and slammed his locker shut, causing him to jump and take a quick step back.

"I'm alive, Stiles! No thanks to you… you ditched me at the party and I was stuck trying to find my own way home!" I angrily said, holding back the slew of curse words tickling the back of my tongue, if I'd said what I really wanted to say then I'd probably turn around to find a teacher holding my detention slip.

"I have a very good reason for leaving you at the party. Scot was… he, uh was really sick and I had to help him." Stiles stammered out an excuse, a goofy grin on his face as he tried to sell the lie. But I wasn't buying it, I'd been around him enough to know he was a terrible liar.

"And your lame attempt at an excuse for not calling or coming by at all this weekend?" I pushed, anger lacing my every syllable.

"I was helping, Scott." He answered, seeming truthful enough.

"With?"

"With, uh… well, you see h-he he was still sick." Stiles nervously licked his lips as he spoke what was clearly another lie.

Does he honestly think I'm buying this crap? Do I look like I was born yesterday? Do I have 'idiot' written across my forehead?

Before I got the chance to say anything else, his eyes widened and a look of concern fell over his face as he asked, "You're okay though, right? I know Derek gave you and Allison a ride home."

Ignoring his question, I pointed out, "You and Scott are my only friends, you know that? If I'd been kidnapped or killed no one would realize it because neither of you checked on me once this weekend." I pouted, I knew that and I wasn't intentionally trying to guilt trip him. But it was the truth, they're the closest people too me and apparently whatever came up was so important they'd spent the weekend together –but not important enough to fill me in.

It's not like them to lie to me; selfishly I hoped he did feel a little bad, I hoped they both did.

He sighed and nodded his head, a look of defeat on his face, "Brie I'm sorry."

Apology not excepted. "It's okay." I lied with a shrug, quickly losing my anger at him with how worried he seemed.

Turning I started to walk away until he quickly caught up with me; letting out a pained groan when someone bumped into him. "Hey, uh, what did you and Derek talk about?"

Hmm, let's see. We talked about him lying and masquerading around as Scott's friend. And more importantly we talked about how he's been watching my house.

"Nothing really, he's quiet." I answered with another shrug. That's right Stiles, you want to lie and keep secrets from me… I'll do the same. Two can play this game and I'm a much better liar than you are.

"You should stay away from him." Stiles warned, grabbing my arm and pulling me over next to a wall of lockers.

"Why?"

"He just… he might be dangerous."

Biting down on the inside of my cheek, I waited for him to go on; to give me some sort of reason for why Derek is dangerous.

When he didn't offer up any more information, I had to ask, "What do you mean? How is he dangerous?" God, it's like pulling teeth.

He stayed silent, I could see his throat move as he swallowed –either gearing up for a lie or getting ready to break some bad news to me. I wouldn't be sure which until he opened his mouth.

Seconds ticked by –each one feeling like an hour. Come on Stiles, this is information I need to know; seeing as how this guy is watching me.

"Doesn't he seem dangerous to you?" He tried to turn the questioning around on me, his voice growing higher with every syllable.

Yes! I thought, he does seem dangerous and like you pointed out yourself he showed up at the same time our town had a mutilated dead body show up.

I don't know if it's because I just wanted my own secrets to keep when I knew Stiles was hiding something from me, or if it was because I wanted to get to the bottom of this myself. But either way, I couldn't bring myself to tell Stiles that the person watching me from the woods before we left for the party was Derek.

"He's not that bad, I guess." I artfully chose my words and played my best poker face, my eyes glued to him as I spoke –seeking any sign as to what he was thinking or maybe a tell for what he was hiding.

"Not tha-" He shook his head before he practically got everyone in the hallway to stare at us as he yelled, "Not that bad, are you kidding me?!"

"No I'm not kidding!" I was, for all knew Derek could be exactly _that_ bad, possibly even worse. "He was nice enough to offer me and Allison a ride home when you and Scott took off and left us there." I countered; knowing very well that _nice _was an overstatement.

He opened his mouth to argue with me some more, I'm sure. But I wasn't in the mood to stand there and listen to him. Not with all of the lies his lips kept spilling.

Spinning on my heels and not looked back, I called over my shoulder, "I'm late for class."

It wasn't a total lie I excused as the bell rang right when I slid into my desk near the windows behind Allison's seat.

Pulling in a deep breath, I ran my hands through my hair and looked over to the large wall of windows where I caught a flash of dark clothing before the source disappeared behind a tree.

Was Derek watching me at school or am I going crazy. Maybe the shock of the murder has made me paranoid, yeah. That's it, just an overly healthy case of paranoia.

"Brie?"

I almost jumped out of my desk.

"Are you okay?" Allison whispered with a small laugh at seeing she'd startled me.

My mouth hung open and I couldn't find my words; possibly because I didn't know if I was okay, or what my friends were hiding. Now that I think about it, I don't understand anything that's happening.

Looking down I saw she was holding out a stack of papers. Feigning a smile I took them from her, placing a copy of the quiz on my desk and turned around handing the rest to the guy sitting behind me.

Wiping my sweaty palms on the sides of my denim jacket, I glanced around the room seeing everyone else hurriedly scrambling to fill in the blanks in hopes for a passing grade.

Perfect, just perfect –the only thing worse than a pop quiz is trying to complete one when you can't focus because someone may or may not be watching you from outside.

Try as I might to focus on the task at hand, my efforts were futile as I kept looked back over towards the window. But I never saw anything strange –no tall, dark and creepy guy watching me.

With a sigh I slid down in my seat some, clicking the eraser down on my mechanical pencil to replace the lead tip I'd snapped for the dozenth time in the past five minutes. Have I mentioned I might be losing my mind?

**~(After school)~**

"Let's go! One-on-one from up top!" Coach Finstock called out, before ordering Jackson to pick up a long stick for the day. And there I was, sitting in the bleachers waiting for Lacrosse practice to be over –the price I pay for not having a car of my own and not wanting to take the bus.

The field was buzzing with excitement, I could feel it from where I was sitting. Even with as mad as I was at Scott and Stiles, I was equally excited that Scott made first line.

When he said at the beginning of summer that things were going to be different this year, I didn't believe it. It was the same thing he said before we started high school; our freshman year turned out to be painfully uneventful.

But things were really turning around for Scott now. He had Allison, who he'd excitedly informed me during lunch was going to give him another chance, in fact Allison was all he talked about. Almost to the point that I started cringing when he started a sentence with her name.

But good for him, he got the girl –he's somehow amazing at lacrosse and just like he said it would be, sophomore year was different.

Looking to where the players were lined up, I saw Stiles drop his lacrosse stick to the ground as he fixed his gloves. But when he went to pick it back up he stepped on the plastic that surrounded the net and the stick popped up and collided with his helmet so fast I heard the impact from where I was sitting.

I cringed along with him as his teammates laughed. This year was different for Scott at least. Everything was the same for me and Stiles, well not everything… I did possibly have Derek Hale stalking me. That was probably the most interesting thing to happen since I moved here.

The rest of the team lined up and everyone took a shot at trying to get the ball past Jackson to the net, but no one could. Typical Jackson –perfect in everything that he did.

"Woo!" I jumped up and cheered loudly from the bleachers when it was Scott's turn to take a shot. The few other students out there with me were sitting over to the side working on their homework all turned and stared at me.

Oh well, stare all you want bitches –that's my best friend out there.

A fact I would have liked, moments later, to dispute when Scott lasted the least amount of time out of everyone who'd gone up against Jackson.

With a nervous laugh, I flashed the nosey study group a self-conscious smile before slowly taking my seat as Scott moved at the same speed trying to pick himself up off the ground.

"Hey McCall, McCall!" Coach called out with an amused laugh.

I watched as he leaned over some saying something to Scott that I couldn't hear from where I was sitting.

But I quickly figured out what they'd been talking about when Scott jogged back to the front of the line and coach announced, "McCall's gonna do it again! Maybe this time he can move faster than my grandmother –my dead grandmother!"

With a small pained noise I cringed from the embarrassment I knew Scott must have been feeling. Was a teacher even allowed to say stuff like that to their students?

I thought about standing up and cheering again but quickly decided against it, why draw even more attention to the situation when it seemed like everyone's eyes were already on him.

Come on, Scott! I internally cheered as coach blew his whistle, signaling the start of the play.

Scott raced across the field, more determination and confidence in his movements.

He might actually pull this off. My foot tapped excitedly on the metal bleachers and I could feel eyes on me, I don't think I could make that study group hate me anymore today.

This was it, either Scott was going to be knocked down and face the humiliation from his team and coach or angels were going to smile down on him and grant him the miracle of getting the ball whizzing past Jackson and the goalie in the net.

"Yes!" I shouted when Scott overpowered Jackson and knocked him down. Angels in the Outfield? Please, more like angels on the lacrosse field.

I lowered my hands and stopped clapping when Jackson didn't get up, instead he rolled from side to side, clutching onto his shoulder. I probably should have felt worse about the situation than I did, but then again Jackson Whittemore did run into me in the hallway last year; completely knocked me over and then snapped that I should have been watching where I was going as I was sitting on the floor with everything I'd been holding in my arms scattered in chaos around me.

Well, Jackson every action has consequences and one way or another karma will get you. No, that's really mean… I hope he's not hurt bad. Hmm, not _too_ badly.

Scott seemed okay right after unknowingly taking my revenge on Jackson, but suddenly I wasn't entirely sure. As soon as I saw him double over and drop to the ground, I didn't hesitate grabbing my bag and running out onto the field. But before I could get to them Stiles lead him away; completely ignoring me as I called after them.

Feeling a familiar sense of being watched, I looked over and several feet back from the end of the of the bleachers, standing just off of the field with his hands tucked in his leather jacket pockets and his steely gaze glued to me was none other than Derek Hale.

Whelp, there's my answer in the flesh–who apparently decided to opt for a white t-shirt to mix up his signature look–that I'm not suffering from any form of paranoia.

I am being watched, followed, stalked… whichever way you want to word it to make it an easier pill to swallow.

Any other day I might try to go talk to him, demand he give me a reason for this unsettling conduct, but not today. Right now I need to check on Scott.

I'll deal with you later, Derek. I shot him a look that I hoped conveyed my thoughts and didn't just make me look like I was in some bad need of sunglasses with all of my squinting.

I turned and headed back to the school, I was almost in a run by the time I reached the locker room where I found Stiles just outside of the door spraying Scott down with the fire extinguisher.

"Stiles, what the hell are you doing?" My voice came out so high and shrill it hurt even my own ears as I raced for him and managed to get it away from him.

"Brie, no! You don't understand, Scott is…" His voice trailed off as he looks into the locker room, I follow his gaze to see Scott sit down on one of the benches. "Fine!" Stiles exclaimed, relief in his tone. "Scott is fine… he's normal, perfectly normal."

"What?" The question leaves my mouth so quickly he couldn't even finish his sentence.

"N-nothing, I don't know why I said that." He murmured, seeming out of breath.

"What happened?" Scott feebly asked as he looked up at us.

Throwing the fire extinguisher to the side, my shoulders shrugged with my loss for an answer and I looked at Stiles who's eyes were rapidly darting back and forth between Scott and myself.

"Brie, uh, I'll change and meet you at my jeep." He said, not giving me time to respond as he placed his hands on my shoulders and pushed me from the room.

I'd barely got turned around before the blue locker room door was rudely slammed in my face.

I was pretty sure anyone walking through the basement under me would have been killed on impact from my jaw dropping.

He did not just do that to me.

That's it! He's getting it now, the same way he just sprayed poor Scott down. I thought as I picked up the fire extinguisher and started to get it set up in my hands for an attack. I was going to bust through that door and spray Stiles with it.

Or at least I was going to until I heard Coach yell, "Aubrie! What the hell are you doing?"

"I was, uh…" My voice trailed off.

"Give me that!" He ordered, but didn't give me time to comply as he pulled the red barrel from my hands.

"What were you doing?" He repeated his first question.

"I was going to spray Stiles." I admitted, no point in lying.

Seeing the confused expression on his face I sighed, "You know Stiles… Stilinski, number 24."

His brows raised as he realized who I meant, looking down the extinguisher he'd confiscated from me, he let out a loud booming laugh as he nodded and said, "Now that… that I would pay to see." He pointed a finger at me and continued to laugh at what I'd said.

With a hopeful look I held my hands out, but he moved the device farther away from me as he said, "But I can't let you that. Do you have any idea how much one of these costs the school?"

"No?" I shrugged, waiting on an answer.

"Well…" He said, clearing his throat before he stared at me blankly and continued, "It's more than I can afford to replace on my salary, trust me."

With a sigh of defeat, I turned and headed for the parking lot to wait by Stiles' jeep.

**~(That night)~**

"There you are!" Stiles exclaimed, as my webcam finally connected into the conference video chat.

"Yeah, I got sick of the constant stream of texts." I replied, speaking loudly over the noise of a green video game controller gun, that Stiles had gotten trigger happy on as he pointed it at the computer.

Scott sighed with I'm sure the level of irritation at the noise that I was currently experiencing.

Lowering the gun he said, "Look, I didn't pay for this conference video chat program so you could ignore us."

"You didn't pay for it all! We downloaded pirated versions of it." I argued with raised eyebrows as I adjusted the screen on my laptop so I could see them better.

"Yeah, and I got a virus from it." Scott spoke up.

Nodding I agreed, "Scott got a virus because of it."

With narrowed eyes Stiles raised the video game gun and shot at the screen a few more times before Scott told him to put it down and asked, "Did you find anything out about Jackson?"

"Yeah, I just got off the phone with Allison, she heard from Lydia that Jackson's got a separated shoulder." I admitted with a frown, actually feeling guilty for wishing pain on Mr. Perfect earlier that day.

"Is that bad? That sounds bad!" Scott gasped, leaning in close to the screen and causing his camera to blur in his darkened room.

"Obviously it's not good." Stiles agreed.

"It's pretty bad, they don't know if he'll be able to play in the game Saturday. If it's bad enough… he could be out for most of the season." I delivered the news with the same eloquence a doctor would have, I'm sure.

"All because of me." Scott groaned, even through his blurry camera trying to repeatedly focus in the darkness of his room I could see the guilty look on his face.

"Because he's a tool." Stiles corrected, then sat up straighter in his seat as he added, "That means everyone will be counting on you for the game Saturday."

I smiled, happy that Scott might get a chance to shine at the game. But my friend's expressions didn't match mine; they looked worried by the idea.

Then Stiles leaned in staring at his screen and I asked, "What are you doing?"

When he didn't respond and moved in even closer Scott asked, "Stiles?

He faced the camera again, looking terrified. I started to ask what was wrong but before I could I heard him typing on his laptop.

With a groan I reminded him, "Ugh, Stiles you know using actual text chat makes the conference program move sooo slow!"

He either ignored me or wasn't listening as I continued to hear the click of the keys, and just like I'd predicted his end of the conversation started to lag.

Finally the chat bubble came up:

_Scott_

"What?" Scott groaned, and I shared in his frustration as Stiles' action was making even my computer run slow.

_It's looks like_

It looks what what!? I'm internally screaming from the computer being slow, mad at him until I see the last message and realize why he was typing

_Someone's behind you_

Leaning in closer to my screen, my eyes widened. Holy crap, he's right! I could see a dark, shadowed figure behind Scott moments before he was out of his chair.

The chat program continued to lag with the annoying circle spinning in the center of my screen.

"Scott?" I yelled at the computer, slamming my fingers down and pressing any key they landed on frantically.

After what felt like an eternity, it finally stopped and I could see Stiles staring anxiously at his screen. And finally, just as I had my phone in my hands ready to call 911 and direct them to Scott's address, he collapsed back into his seat.

Even though there was a computer between all of us, I could tell he was looking more at Stiles than he was me.

"Scott, are you okay?" I asked, my words rushed out in a breathless tone.

"I'm, uh…" He stuttered, lowering his head for a moment as he said, "I'm fine."

He looked back down and I started to ask what he was doing, but my question was answered before it was asked when I heard his phone signal he'd sent out a text.

My fingers trembled as I stared down to my phone waiting on a text, thinking maybe whoever it was –was still there and he was texting us to get help.

But then Stiles' phone played it's incoming text alert, and I had nothing.

I watched as Stiles looked down and then back up at the computer with wide eyes and Scott nodded.

I don't think I've ever felt more like the third wheel in my entire time of being friends with them. Why the hell are they being so secretive?

"What?" I demanded to know in a voice so loud I was sure my aunt was going to come into my room and tell me to be quiet.

My face was on fire but my fingers felt as cold as ice as I waited for either of them to respond.

Silence.

I just freaking sat there thinking one of my best friend's had been killed and now neither of them would even speak to me. I saw someone behind Scott wearing black except for a flash of white… wait a mintute. At the school I saw Derek, in a white shirt under his leather jacket. Derek _freaking_ Hale was not only stalking me, not only running around town claiming to be Scott's friend –but now he was breaking into my friend's house late at night.

What the hell is wrong with this guy!

I looked over to my windows, making sure they were closed and made a mental note to double check the locks on the doors downstairs.

"It was Derek wasn't it?" I asked, but I meant it more as an accusation.

When I was met by two, equally shocked expressions, I explained, "He was wearing that same thing at school earlier today! I know it was him, what did he want?"

"You saw him at the school?" Scott gasped as Stiles yelled, "I told you to stay away from him!"

"What did he say?" They both asked me in unison.

"What was he doing in your room?" I shot back. If looks could kill, I would have already shot death rays from my eyes powerful enough to travel through the computers and strike them dead.

"You're really not going to tell me?" I asked, not wanting to whine but I heard it in my own voice.

"Brie…" Stiles said shaking his head back and forth.

"Don't you Brie, me. What the hell are you guys hiding from me?" I pleaded.

Come on guys, I'm a smart girl. Just give me a hint and I'll figure it out!

"We're not exactly hiding things." Stiles tried to argue with me.

"Then what are you doing?"

"Protecting you." Scott quietly said, as he diverted his eyes down where he didn't have to see my face on his computer screen.

"I don't need protecting. I need you guys to be straight with me. We've been friends for years, you know you can trust me."

"He's right." Stiles sided with Scott as he continued, "We're trying to protect you."

"You know… sometimes you guys get so wrapped up in something that you forget to include me, and that really sucks. But to have you both lying to my face is something else entirely." I breathed, in a voice that sounded just as pained as my heart was.

Scott refused to look back up to the computer screen and Stiles leaned in closer as he started, "Aubrie, listen-"

"No. I don't need any more of your lies, Stiles." With that I slammed my laptop shut and hung my head.

I didn't know what was going on or what any of it had to do with Derek, but I was going to find out. Opening my computer back up I quickly closed out of the video conference program as it tried to start back up on its own.

Opening up an internet search box my fingers hovered over the keys, as I thought of what I needed to do next. Blowing out a breath I dropped my hands to the key board and quickly typed out _'Hale house fire Beacon Hills, CA'_ as I moved the mouse pointer over to click search, my stomach soured as though there was a storm brewing –only instead of trying to take cover, I was putting myself right into the path of a hurricane.

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><p><strong>AN- I really hope you guys all enjoyed the chapter. Don't worry there will be more Derek/Brie interaction next chapter! If anyone is interested, there's a link up on my profile to the video I made for this story. **

**I'm hoping to be able to keep getting the chapters out for this story pretty fast now that my collab partner and I have finished writing season 4 of our Teen Wolf, Blue Moon Series, we're both able to focus on our own stories now. _(_If anyone is interested in the Blue Moon Series, there are 4 stories posted so far: Once in a Blue Moon S1-S2, Twice in a Blue Moon S3A, The Dark Blue Moon S3B, and now A New Blue Moon S4_)_**

**Thanks so much for reading! ^_^**


	3. The Fear

**It's Just a Trick of the Moonlight**

**Chapter Three – The Fear**

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><p>"Thanks for letting me use the car, Sheila." I said as I walked over and sat my empty cereal bowl in the sink then leaned against the counter to face my aunt. Since I'd moved in with my Aunt Sheila and Uncle Daniel –I'd been on a first name basis with them. Sheila was my mom's younger sister and she'd also sort of felt more like my sister than my aunt.<p>

She turned and gave me a warm smile, barely visible above her coffee mug before she took a drink and nodded, "No problem. I don't think I have anywhere to be today and if I do I'll just take Dan's car."

I started to walk over to the kitchen table to get my school bag and head out for the day but she stopped me as she asked, "You're leaving awfully early today."

Pulling in a deep breath, I mentally prepared for the lie as I turned and rolled my eyes seeming annoyed, "Yeah, I've got a chemistry project due by the end of the day and my partner's supposed to be meeting me before school so we can work on it."

She nodded and bought the lie. No surprise really considering I never really had any reason to lie to my aunt and uncle, but I doubted the truth would have been acceptable this time. I couldn't exactly tell her I'd been up all night looking over everything I could get my hands on about the Hale fire and now I was setting off into the woods in search of where the house would have been.

I had the windows down and the radio playing as I ventured off of the road and into the woods, praying silently that I wouldn't get the car stuck somewhere or hit an animal. But the drive quickly became easier as I followed another set of tire tracks that had left their mark on the earth below my car.

Someone else had been out here –probably the killer. After all who else would be driving around the woods? Swallowing hard I shut the radio off and gripped it so tight I'd nearly lost the feeling in my fingers, with my terrible luck the murderer was probably still out here and I was walking, er –driving into some sort of trap.

Well sayonara Sheila, you may never see me or your Ford Explorer again.

Following the tire tracks, I was led right to the charred remains of what I'm sure was once a very beautiful, large house. I'm really surprised the house is still standing, from what I'd read online eight members of the Hale family were killed in the fire. It was a suspected electrical malfunction but that story didn't really seem to add up to me, all of the bodies were found in the basement –what was everyone doing in the basement and why didn't anyone try to get out of the damn house if it was burning down around them?

I had to admit, even with all of the creepy and flat out rude behavior from Derek, everything I'd read about his family made me feel sorry for him.

I just couldn't understand why he'd come back to town now after six years and there was still the unsettling fact that right when he came, a dead body turned up in the woods.

Well, it's now or never –I thought to myself as I stepped out of the car and locked it behind me. I did a quick check of my surroundings before I ventured up onto the porch, hoping the weathered wood was strong enough that it wasn't going to give way.

It was obvious with the back half of the house missing from the fire that the structure was unlivable but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was breaking into someone else's house as I pushed the door open and walked in.

The floor and the walls were dusty, enough so it made it slightly hard to breath when a cold gust of wind blew through from the exposed back rooms. If someone had found me and asked what I was doing there, I wouldn't have an answer for them. What the hell was I doing here?

I guess the simple truth was I wanted to know what my best friends were hiding from me and it seemed that whatever was going on with them had something to do with Derek Hale. But I knew there was more to it than that, I wanted to know why he was watching me; I guess you could even venture so far as to say that I wanted to know his story.

Walking through what I'm guessing was once the living room, I ran my fingers over the top of an old coffee table and looked around the room before my eyes stopped on an old print pattern couch. It stuck out in the room like a sore thumb, not because it looked any newer or less worn than the other scattered pieces –but all the dust had been wiped off of it.

Walking over to it, something else caught my eye –the edge of a black bag poking out from underneath it.

This is a bad idea, the bag looks new. Someone has clearly been here, judging from the dustless couch –possibly someone had been sleeping in this very room. But I couldn't stop myself as I dropped down to my knees on the floor and pulled the bag out with slightly shaky fingers I found the zipper and opened it.

Clothing; mens clothing –that was clear with the few pairs of boxers, I have a problem, I thought to myself as I pushed them to the side trying to touch the fabric as least as possible, to reveal, dark shirts and equally dark jeans.

Too much, this is just too much –I'm not the type of person who breaks into houses and goes through strangers bags. I mean in general, who the hell does this kind of stuff?

I started to zip the bag closed, but as I pulled the flap closed I smelled something that I vaguely recognized as cologne I'd smelled before but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Opening the bag back up, I picked up the first article of clothing I saw that wasn't boxers, it was a slightly faded black t-shirt.

You are sick Aubrie Jane Beck –absolutely messed up. I lectured myself as I brought the fabric to my nose and breathed in.

Almost as soon as I did, I gasped and let the shirt fall to dusty floor. Holy shit, I know exactly where I smelled that cologne before, in the woods right when I'd ran into Derek.

This was his bag.

I had just broken into what was left of his family's house and went through his bag, for christ's sake, I was even sniffing his clothes! No, no, no. I have to get the hell out of here as quick as these legs will carry me. I'm a bigger freak than he is.

Picking the shirt up from the floor, I did my best to shake the dust off of it –in an attempt to hide my tracks. But just as I'd started to put it back in his duffle bag I heard what could have been the most terrifying sound I've ever heard… a car!

Someone else was here, which means not only I am now trapped inside of this house, but they'd also seen my aunts car outside.

I'm trapped, completely trapped. The only way out is the front door and without a doubt that's where they were going to come in from, more than likely it's probably Derek, who I'm still partly convinced is the murderer.

Focus, come on Brie.

My heart was racing and there was a prickly feeling in my legs from the way I'd been sitting, slowly I rose to my feet and tried to find somewhere to hide. If I can wait him out the moment he leaves, I'll make a run for it. I'm not even going to bother with the car, if he is the killer he's probably already cut some vital cable to trap me here. I'm just going to race off into the woods and hopefully reach the road before he catches me.

I've seen enough horror movies to know if that's the case, it's a ten to once chance that I'll ever make it out of the woods alive. Stop it, stop thinking about that.

Seeing a door off to the side, I dart over to it and open it to reveal a small closet complete with some old wire hangers and so many cobwebs that I'm not even sure there's room for me amongst the spiders.

Decision time and this one's a doozy; spend god knows how long in this tiny closet with a nightmares worth of eight legged creatures from hell or be caught by Derek and possibly killed.

I heard the front door open and my brain clicked to auto pilot before I could give much more thought to the situation and jumped into the closet, shutting the door behind me as quietly as possible.

My heart was beating so loudly I could feel the echo in my head and could barely hear heavy footsteps in the house with me. Raising my arm, I wiped my face with the shirt in my hand as sweat stung my eyes.

Remembering something I'd either seen on TV or read in a book, I slid my hand into my denim jacket pocket and wrapped my cold, clammy fingers around the car keys. Trying not to make a sound, I spread the keys placing a key between each finger and making a tight fist around the key chains.

He might be a lot bigger and stronger than me, but I'm not going down without a fight.

I didn't even hear his footsteps getting closer anymore, there was just a cold silence in the house. Maybe I should have felt relieved, but I was more terrified than before. Where the hell did he go?

I got my answer as the door jerked open before I had time to even raise my head and verify if it was Derek or not, a pair of alarmingly strong hands landed on my upper arms and pulled me from my spider infested hiding place. I tried to bring my arm up to hit whoever had me, but I couldn't –they weren't just strong, they were _too _strong and my back collided painfully hard with the wall next to the closet.

My eyes hurt from the way I was pinning my eyes shut, but I didn't dare look, I'd seen enough movies and TV to know what happens next. I have met my end, this is how I'm going to die.

"What the hell are you doing in here?"

Cracking one eye open at the sound of Derek's voice, I stared at him still cringing until he let go of me and took a small step back, but not far enough that I'd have a chance in hell of getting past him.

"Well?" He demanded to know.

He has to be the single most impatient person I've ever met.

"I, was uh…" Come on mouth, don't fail me now. The last thing I need to do is turn into a stammering fool trying to make words out of sounds that don't fit together. But my god, did he have to stand this close to me? I'm a firm believer in personal space and right now mine was being all kinds of invaded.

His eyes dropped down to my side for a moment, and I followed his gaze until I realized why he was staring at my hand – I was still fearfully clutching onto the shirt I'd taken out of his bag.

_Oh dear god_, this is not happening to me.

"I can explain!" I blurted out, not sure if I could back that up with fact or not.

"I'm waiting." He gruffly replied.

For someone who can't seem to stay away from me, he sure talks to me like we've been enemies our entire lives.

Pulling in a deep breath, I plotted my next move. I was going to stand up tall, hide the fact that my legs felt like weak, splintered toothpicks unable to support me and tell him that I was there because I didn't appreciate him watching me all the time.

"I need to know what Scott and Stiles are hiding from me."

Panic constricted my throat. I opened my mouth with the intention of telling him off and instead my voice whined out a betrayal.

He cocked a brow at me and said, "Then ask them."

"I did, but they won't tell me anything." I admitted, my own eyebrows lowering in confusion as I opened up to him for no apparent reason.

"Then maybe you should just stay out of it." He harshly said, catching me a little off guard as he pointed out, "Like I told you to do in the first place."

"I need to know what's going on…" I said, swallowing hard before adding, "They said they're trying to protect me, but I don't need protected –"

"What does that have to do with me?"

Clearly, active listening wasn't one of his strong traits, a fact I quickly gathered when he cut me off before I could finish my sentence.

When I continued to stare in silence at him, he added more depth to his line of questioning, "What are doing here…you always go around breaking into other people's houses?

Apparently I do, Derek. I have developed this bad habit of breaking into other people's houses and smelling their clothes. I'm a bigger freak than he is.

"It's not like that." I tried to cover as I pushed his shirt into his hand before I realized only moments ago I'd wiped my sweaty face on that very fabric, "Whatever they're hiding from me has something to do with you, and since they won't tell me…"

Dropping the shirt onto the couch beside him; never once taking his eyes off of me, he sternly stared me down. I'm guessing a normal reaction to that harsh, imposing stare should have been fear –similar to the intensity I was feeling before.

But clearly he wasn't going to kill me. He'd had plenty of opportunities to and he hadn't ever even tried to hurt me –which was a relief, but also raised more questions like why he was choosing to live in the house he'd lost nearly all of his family in.

"Get out." He sighed, as he took a step back and pointed towards the entry way of the house.

"You owe me an explanation to so many things right now… the least you could do is tell my why you were in Scott's house last night." I bravely said, crossing my fingers at my sides in hopes that he'd give me an answer.

"Aubrie, seriously… just stay out of it." He declined, his eyes and met mine for a moment before he looked away.

"I can't do that, Scott and Stiles are my best friends-" My voice trailed off as he stepped forward and put a hand on my upper arm.

Let go of me –I internally shouted as he started to pull me towards the door. But I couldn't say anything. Does he always treat people like this?

It wasn't until we were on the porch that I finally managed to pull my arm away from his grip and let out a frustrated noise as he pulled the door to the house shut and blocked it with his body. Making it crystal clear I wasn't welcome there.

A million questions formed in my head, buzzing around with the thunderous force of an F-5 tornado but it wouldn't matter how many questions I fired off at him, he wasn't going to tell me anything.

Yet again, I was entirely on my own to figure this thing out.

My shoulders slouched in defeated and I turned around, stepping down the cement stairs and heard him walking behind me; obviously not trusting me enough to walk to my car by myself, he was going to make sure I got in the car and left.

I didn't look over my shoulder as I neared my aunt's car and found the correct button on the key fob to unlock it, I didn't look back at him until I opened the unlocked driver's side door then turned around –taking one last glance at the house.

It must be torture to live in the same place your family died in. Maybe that was the point, maybe he was punishing himself for something. He drove a brand new Camaro so he had some money at least, It would be enough to be able to afford at least an apartment or something.

"I'm sorry." The words left my mouth unintentionally.

My eyes locked with his and I could see he looked a little confused, "Not for breaking in." I added before cringing and apologizing, "Well, I'm sorry for that too… but I meant about your family." I nodded back towards the house.

He looked shocked, as if it were the first time anyone had said that to him.

A look he quickly disguised with one of annoyance as he snapped, "I don't need your sympathy."

"It's not sympathy." I shot back without missing a beat, "It's empathy… coming from someone who knows what it's like to lose their family."

My eyes quickly dropped to the leaf littered ground and I wanted to raise my hand and slap myself, what is it about him that makes me just spill everything that crosses my mind.

Time to get the hell out of here before I accidently drop my entire life story on him.

"Aubrie."

His voice made my shoulders rise in a failed attempt to hide myself from him. I didn't want to turn around, I didn't want to face him after what I'd just said. What if he asked about my family?

Swallowing hard I turned around intending to tell him I needed to get to school, but stopped when I saw him leaned over in the open door of his car. Standing up he had something in his hand, it wasn't until he held it out to me that I realized it was a thin black jacket.

"Your friend, Allison must have left it in my car the night of the party." He simply stated.

"Oh." I said with a nervous chuckle as I quickly reached out to pull the jacket away from him, and accidently brushed my hand against his.

It was an accident, right? The day before, maybe even ten minutes ago I would have sworn it was unintentional, but when I looked up at him –I was no longer sure because in that moment several things summed up to Derek Hale:

Dark jeans and a light gray henley shirt that almost appeared to be painted on over his muscular frame.

His dark hair was a strikingly attractive mess, his face was unshaven –I'd guess probably a couple days. And his light green eyes stared me down from under a dark canopy of lashes.

Perhaps the most surprising thing I realized in that moment was the way his eyes weren't laced with their usual angry expression. I'm not even sure how to describe the look in his eyes, not exactly friendliness but certainly not hate either.

He opened his mouth to say something and I put up a hell of a fight, but in the end my eyes dropped to his lips and I couldn't hear a single thing he said, my entire world had been muted.

Did he look like this when he first yelled at me and my friends in the woods?

He said something else, again my eyes were drawn to his mouth and I still couldn't hear a single word he was saying. God help me.

I became aware of a bird squawking somewhere in the distance, as sound slowly started to seep into my world again but unfortunately, his voice wasn't one of those sounds.

He'd finished whatever it was he'd said; now I had no idea how to respond and with the way he was looking at me with his eyebrows raised I gathered that he was waiting on some kind of response.

What the hell was I going to say? With any luck it was a simple yes or no question which meant I'd have a 50/50 shot of getting it right. Now… which answer to go with?

If it wasn't impossible I would have bet my college fund that my blood was glowing under my skin.

Then I realized he hadn't answered any of my questions since he'd found me hiding in the house, so rightfully –I had no obligation to answer him in the slightest.

"Thanks." I managed to find my words as I held up the jacket and offered a smile, before I turned and got into my car. Once I got my door shut I looked up to see Derek standing on the porch watching me, so apparently whatever he'd asked me wasn't all that important.

Blindly my fingers managed to get the keys into the ignition and the engine roared to life.

I took my time pulling my seatbelt on, trying to not look back up where he was standing but once it was latched I had to look back out of the windshield and there he was –still on the porch with his eyes glued to me.

I wasn't closer to finding out why he was watching me or what was going on with my friends, but now I was absolutely sure there was more to Derek than I'd originally thought. I no longer believed he was our towns new murderer, but I wouldn't go as far as saying that I trusted him either.

Managing to pull my eyes away from him, I back up some before putting the car back into drive and going around his car on my way out of the woods.

Something told me if my morning started out like this, the rest of my day could only get stranger.

**~(Later that day)~**

After spending the better half of my day avoiding Scott and Stiles, which wasn't so easy considering I had at least one of them in several of my classes. They'd been spilling apologies all day but neither of them was willing to tell me what was going on, so I ignored them the best I could.

"You're coming with us after the game right?" Allison asked me as we walked down the hallway together.

"Hanging out with Lydia and Jackson… ha, no." I breathed. The last thing I wanted to do on a Saturday night was spend it with Lydia and Jackson.

"Are you sure? Stiles is invited too." She cheerfully added, like that small fact would change my mind.

I opened my mouth to tell her I still wasn't going but before I could, Lydia came up to us with one of the first line lacrosse players –a very cute lacrosse player.

"This is Allison." Lydia greeted, as she smiled innocently, but I knew she was up to something. Lydia Martin was always up to something and she knew Scott and Allison were interested in each other –so why the hell was she introducing her to other guys on the team?

It wasn't until I heard Allison say my name that I was shaken from my thoughts.

"Huh?" I breathed looking over to her.

Scratching the side of her head and holding back a laugh she nodded to the lacrosse player who's name I didn't catch, my eyes traveled down to see his hand was extended to me.

Oh wow, okay… this is a first.

"H-hey." I stammered giving him a smile as I shook his hand and he smiled back as he asked, "So you're new too?"

Before I could respond Lydia cut in, "I don't know, she must be… I've never seen her before."

Lydia Martin… you lying little bitch. But I guess it's better to be feared than loved.

"Oh." He accepted, his attention still on me as he asked, "So how are you liking Beacon Hills?"

"I like it." I helplessly agreed as I saw Allison stifling a laugh from beside me.

"Anyways…" Lydia breathed out in irritation as she partially stepped in front of me, trying to shield me from the nameless, attractive lacrosse player, "I was just telling Allison earlier today that she'd have to check out the game this weekend."

"Yeah, deififntly." He agreed, but his eyes drifted back to me as he said, "You should come too."

"I never miss a game." I automatically replied, before my eyes widened in shock and his brows lowered, "I thought you were new…"

"Right, well… I,uh-" My voice trailed off as I saw Lydia flash me a smug smile over her shoulder, before her gaze drifted past me to where I looked and saw a very pissed off Scott headed our way.

Lydia grabbed the lacrosse player's hand and started to lead him away as she did he politely, said, "It was nice to meet you, Brie. See you at the game."

I smiled and threw my hand up in an awkward wave to him, in response he looked at me like I had three heads before disappearing into the crowded hallway.

I didn't plan on sticking around and spying on Scott and Allison, until he demanded to know where she'd gotten her jacket from.

"My jacket? It was in my locker… maybe Lydia brought it back from the party, she has my combination from-" Allison replied, but didn't get a chance to finished.

"Did she say she brought it back or did somebody give her the jacket?" Scott almost yelled at her.

Oh no, you're blowing it, Scott. I don't know what the hell is going on with you lately, but you're going to scare Allison off if you're not careful.

"Like who?" Allison asked him.

Doing my best impression of casually walking up to them; pretending not be that friend who stands to the side and spies on people, I opened my mouth to clear up the situation, but I wasn't able to save Scott in time as he angrily said, "Like Derek."

"You're friend?" She guessed.

No, no, no.

"He's not my friend." Scott practically growled at her.

Turning to me Allison said, "I thought you said he was…"

"Well, I didn't technically mean he was his friend-friend, I meant more like an acquaintance of Scott's." I tried to defend, but now she was looking at me like I was crazy and a liar and Scott was pissed at me as he snapped, "Why would you say that, you know Derek's not my friend."

He looked between us, and in a very un-Scott-like manor demanded to know, "How much did you guys talk to him when he drove you home?"

"Not much at all." Allison admitted, looking to me for support and I nodded in agreement.

"What did you say?" Scott asked, stepping closer to Allison. But she was done with the conversation and his attitude, "I have to get to class." She said as he turned to walk away.

"Allison!" Scott called after her, but I stepped in the way blocking him from going after her as I admitted, "You need to chill out. I'm the one who put her jacket in her locker."

I saw the veins show in his neck as he stared at me with a look like he could snap and attack at any moment. This wasn't a good look on him –not to mention Scott _never _acted like this.

"Where did you get it?" He questioned, but it sounded more like an order.

"From Derek this morning."

"You-you what!" He yelled way too loud for someone who was standing just in front of me. "We told you to stay away from Derek. And why the hell did you tell Allison he was my friend, are you trying to get her killed? Or are you trying to ruin everything for me?"

I overheard Jackson talking the other day about how he thought Scott was on steroids, I literally laughed out loud at that one. But I wasn't laughing anymore. I never thought he'd be one to start experimenting with drugs, but what other excuse could he have for the complete 180 he was doing.

I'm starting to get whiplash from being around him and Stiles lately.

"FYI Scott, I'm not the one screwing your life up –you are. You're not even acting like yourself, you're short tempered and angry all of the time and don't even get me started on all of the lying lately." I said, through gritted teeth as I stared him down, "And I don't think Derek is as bad as we thought he-"

"Worse than we thought!" He finished my sentence, but not exactly with the same word choice I was going to use. Seeing I didn't believe him he said, "And I can prove it… Stiles and I are going to find the other half of that body and I'll prove Derek's the one who killed them."

"I'm… late for class." My words were barely audible as I spun on my heels and started to walk in the other direction away from him. I know he's under a lot of stress with everyone counting on him for the game this weekend –but that's no excuse for how different he's acting.

In these past few weeks I've had more falling outs with my two best friends than in the entirety of our friendship and I wasn't going to give up until I found out why.

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><p><strong>AN – Thanks for reading!^_^ I really hope you guys all liked the chapter and the Derek/Brie interaction.**

**Don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you thought.**


	4. I'm Only Human

**It's Just a Trick of the Moonlight**

**Chapter Four – I'm Only Human**

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><p>This is wrong, this is so –so wrong, I thought to myself as I stepped out of my aunts car and shut the door behind me. I walked past Stiles' jeep and around the side of the Hale house until I saw my friends.<p>

"Well?" I called out.

"H-hey!" Stiles nervously greeted as he stood next to a large hole in the ground. He stabbed the tip of the shovel into the earth beneath his feet and tried to casually lean against it, but it moved and he nearly toppled over.

"You told her?" Scott asked, looking over to him.

"You said she talked to Derek, she needed to see how dangerous he is." Stiles defended.

From the look on their faces, I assumed they hadn't found the other half of the body like Scott swore he would.

Stepping closer I looked down getting ready to unleash a very deserved '_I told you so' _on them, until I saw what they'd unearthed.

My stomach turned and immediately feeling nauseous, I put a hand over my mouth as I gasped, "Oh my god!"

Some things you can never un-see and the sight of the severed top half of a body is certainly one of those things. Her eyes were open, and although they were lifeless, I swear to god it felt like she was looking right at me.

Scott looked down and made a noise as Stiles gasped and jumped back.

"What?" I asked, looking over to them and trying to pull my eyes away from the body but like a moth to flame – I couldn't stop staring.

"What do you mean 'what'?" Stiles shot back at me as he flailed his arms and then directed them to the open grave as if he were trying to direct traffic, "There's a dead body!"

"I know…" I whined, "but you've been here for how long? Why are you acting like you're just now realizing it?"

"Well when we pulled the tarp back-" Scott started to say before his eyes widened and he looked away from me.

Right back to the lying, I see.

"When you pulled the tarp back what?" I asked them, with my arms crossed over my chest.

"Nothing." Stiles loudly said as he looked back down and said, "I think we need to call my dad."

Scott agreed and I slowly knelt down, my knees pressing into the cold dirt just at the edge of the grave. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't look away from her eyes.

I'd always thought once you were dead, your body was an empty shell. But looking into her eyes –I'm not sure I believed that anymore. She might have been dead but there was still emotion showing in her dark brown eyes; fear was prominent, but more than anything she looked shocked –like she never saw it coming.

"Brie!" Scott yelled as Stiles asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm covering her up." I managed to say as I leaned closer and carefully reached into the grave, my trembling fingers grasped onto the edge of the cold tarp and I pulled it back over her as gently as if I were trying to cover up someone who was sleeping without waking them up. I had no idea human skin could even look that gray…

"Why are you doing that?" Stiles continued to question me as he and Scott both took a few steps back.

My fingers sunk into the disturbed, loose dirt as I leaned back up and managed to whisper out, "Because if it were me –I wouldn't want a bunch of people just standing around my body."

Neither of them said anything.

I wanted to stand up and run away from what I'd just seen, but I didn't have the strength too. The smell of death and decay was sickening and the closer to the ground I was the stronger the scent, but every time I closed my eyes I could see the body again.

I was as angry as I was sad. How could someone do this to someone else? Not only kill them, but cut their body in half. Whoever did wasn't only sick… they were nothing short of a monster.

"Brie." I heard Scott saying, his voice barely loud enough for me to hear through the almost loud, haunting images cluttering my mind.

I felt a hand on each of my arms as they pulled me up to my feet.

"Are you alright?" Scott questioned as they both kept holds on my arms and Stiles stared at me concerned.

I looked between their faces, besides looking worried about me and slightly scared they both seemed fine. How is that even possible? How can you just see something like half of a dead body and it not bother you? Maybe I'm not as strong as they are, I don't know… but one thing I do know is that the world's a crueler place than I imagined.

"See?" Stiles breathed as I finally shrugged out of their hands and walked away from the gravesite, "We told you Derek was dangerous."

"Derek didn't do this." I asserted without even thinking before I spoke.

"It's right next to his house!" Scott exclaimed motioning to the structure.

"No, whoever killed that girl was a monster… I looked into Derek's eyes and he might be a jerk, but there's a huge jump between jerk and monster."

They were both staring at me like I was crazy. It seemed like we were disagreeing on everything lately.

"And besides that… who kills someone and buries the body right outside of their house like this? Anyone who's seen one crime show on TV would know better than that!" I yelled, my throat constricting with every word. This was pure insanity.

I'm in over my head here, I wanted my sleepy little town to come alive and be exciting. I didn't want some lunatic running around killing and cutting people in half. I didn't want my friends not being able to open their mouths without telling a lie.

I never thought I'd say this… but I'd give anything to get freshman year back right about now. Just the three of us being invisible at school and no murderer, maybe mundane isn't so bad after all.

I guess what they say is true… be careful what you wish for. I'd wished this year would be different for all three of us, I wished for something interesting to happen in Beacon Hills.

"Seriously, the guy is a total creep. The body is right outside of his house, he's just short of having killer stamped across his forehead Brie." Stiles lectured, but I couldn't stand there for another second.

Wiping my dirt caked hands on my dress, I shook my head at them. Derek Hale wasn't my favorite person in the world –not by a long shot, but they both seemed like they were just out to get him.

"I'm going home." I admitted as I took a few shaky steps away from them, wondering what happened to my best friends. "I snuck out… and there's a town wide curfew."

"Are you okay?" Scott asked me as Stiles took out his phone to call his dad.

"I'm fine."

Lie, total and complete lie. I'm not fine, _nothing_ is fine.

**~(The next day)~**

"Have you been out here all night?" My voice came out slightly hoarse as I found Scott leaned against Stiles' jeep.

He looked over at me and I saw the dark circles around his eyes. There was my answer, they'd been there all night.

"What are you doing back?" Scott asked me, then his eyebrows lowered as he questioned, "Did you walk here?"

Before I could answer he looked down, I'm guessing to see what shoes I had on.

"Jeans and normal shoes… yeah you walked here." He stated as he rubbed his tired eyes.

"What are they doing about…" My voice trailed off as I saw them leading Derek out of the house in cuffs by an older officer as Stiles' dad followed behind them.

Once the group neared the car Derek looked towards us, a look of anger on his face and from the corner of my eyes I saw Scott lower his head avoiding eye contact with him.

But I couldn't pull my eyes away from him; for many reasons. For one, I still didn't believe he'd killed that woman, which was a huge step up from thinking he was going to kill me just the day before.

I had several more very important reasons, I'm sure. But they all seemed to fade away as they came to a stop by the car and his gaze locked with mine and my heart started to pick up speed betraying the stone face I was trying to give him.

But did he really have to look that good while being arrested for murder? Who'd have guessed any guy could look that good in handcuffs?

Oh god, Brie. Stop staring at him. My eyes dropped to the ground and I shook my head at myself, what was happening? Maybe a guy in cuffs was actually a turn on for me… that's terrible, you're sick Brie.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked as I now had both hands over my face, trying to not think about Derek anymore. He may not be a killer, but he was still dangerous –I could feel it around him and the last thing I needed to do was be weirdly attracted to him. I needed to stay away and just be thankful he was going to jail and would no longer be able to creepily spy on me.

"Brie?" Scott repeated and I felt his hand on my arm.

"I'm fine." I quickly blurted out, my hands still covering my face and providing a reason to not look over to Derek.

"Then why are you doing that?" He questioned, his voice so quiet I barely heard him. No one was right around us, why was he whispering like someone could be eavesdropping on us.

It's not like I could tell him I was covering my red cheeks because apparently, tall, dark and creepy guys are not only my type –but throw a little bondage in and I'm practically helpless. Actually, now that I think about it… the look on Scott's face would be hilarious if I told him that.

Dropping my hands I sighed and said, "I don't know." Before he could ask anything else I quickly added in, "Where's Stiles?"

"Oh he's-" Scott looked over in the direction of the car, where I was purposely not looking as he continued, "Ruining everything… he's –oh my god."

Finally mustering the strength to look over to the car, my eyes widened as I saw Stiles trying to look casual as he stood by the patrol car where Derek was in the backseat.

"Stiles!" I hissed, trying to get his attention. He looked over at us with a goofy grin as Scott added in, "No!, Stiles, don't."

But it was too late, Stiles had already scrambled into the patrol car.

"What is he doing?" I questioned, looking over at Scott, but he shrugged and turned away, putting his back towards the scene and shaking his head.

"I'm just… going to wait in the jeep." I muttered, as I looked up and saw Derek watching from me backseat of the police car.

Pulling the door shut I shivered slightly, thankful for the small break from the cold morning breeze. My eyes fell to the book bag in the car where I saw part of a rope sticking out of it.

I'm not the type of friend who normally- No, scratch that… I'm _exactly_ the type of friend who goes through their friends things.

As I opened the bag up farther I pulled part of the rope out, groaning as some loose dirt fell off of the woven fiber and onto my new jeans. At the end of the rope was a purple flower. I'd seen enough supernatural themed movies to recognize it was wolfs bane. Stiles was really taking this werewolf thing too seriously, maybe he should talk to someone about it because werewolves _aren't _real.

But… Scott was bitten by something and I was with him in the woods when he could smell the gum in Stiles' pocket.

No. It's not possible, it's not even in the realm of possibility.

Shoving the rope back into the bag, I tried to shake the thoughts from my head and remain logical.

Werewolves and wolfs bane were things in movies, not things that happened in real life. I nodded, accepting my own thoughts but even so I couldn't stop myself from pulling one of the many flower petals that were placed throughout the rope.

I got out of the car right as Stiles was walking back towards us. "Ready to get out of here?" He questioned looking between us, "I need some sleep before the game tonight."

Scott nodded in agreement but I took a step away from them, the small purple petal clutched tightly in my closed fist I looked between them. Werewolves weren't real –they weren't, that I was one hundred percent sure of; which meant they were still hiding things from me.

"I'm just… you know, it's a nice morning for a walk. I'm just going to walk home." I somehow found my words in spite of my suddenly clumsy tongue.

"You still need a ride to the game tonight, right?" Stiles called after me, while Scott got into the passenger seat of the jeep.

"Uh, yeah… pick me up at the normal time." I barely had time to say before breaking into a jog, and heading back towards the direction I'd came from. Hoping that I didn't wind up lost in the woods.

**~(Later that day)~**

"Ready to go?"

Shutting my laptop, I looked up from it and stared at Stiles in silence. I'd been on the internet since I got home earlier that day.  
>So many things didn't make sense to me and at the same time it felt like everything was finally clicking into place.<p>

Werewolves couldn't be real, because if they were real –then what other kind of things I thought only existed in Hollywood and in nightmares were real?

"Everything okay?" Stiles asked, with a slightly nervous tone to his voice.

I looked down to the small purple petal poking out of the end of my computer, quickly I pulled it out and stealthily slid it under my computer and out of sight from him.

He'd tried to tell me that this was real and I'd all but laughed in his face. I guess I can't really blame him for not telling me after that. But to go to the lengths they were to hide things from me –it was insulting.

"I don't know…" I somehow breathed through the state of shock I was in. "You tell me."

"Well chances are I'll just be warming the bench again." He tried to laugh and play it off but I could tell he was getting uncomfortable.

"There's a full moon coming up soon." I said nonchalantly as I stood up and walked over, disappearing from sight into my closet as I waited for a response.

When I heard nothing I poked my head out to see him, he was standing in the exact same spot I'd left him. Eyes appearing almost glazed over with a dumbfounded look like I'd just picked something up and hit him over the head with it.

"Uh, yeah…. I guess so." He stammered, licking his lips nervously as he continued to trip and stumble over his words, "W-why would you say that?"

Disappearing back into my closet, I closed my eyes for a few moments and pulled in a deep breath before I pulled a light green coat off a hanger and said, "Because… I'm starting to feel like maybe what you said before… the joke about Scott being bitten… maybe it really wasn't a joke."

By the time I'd pulled my coat on and turned around, Stiles was just outside of my closet an almost terrified look on his face.

"I thought you said you didn't believe me." He looked almost hopeful now, as if I were going to throw my head back and laugh at any minute. But I was long past the point of laughing.

"Because it sounds crazy, this is crap that's supposed to be in scary movies… not Beacon Hills." I breathed as I ran my fingers through my hair before, I said, "_If_ it wasn't a joke and it was real though, my _best_ friends in the _whole world_ would have told me though, right?"

He didn't say anything but I could see the little droplets of sweat starting to pepper his forehead, swallowing hard and ignoring the shortness of oxygen in my lungs I continued, "There's no way you and Scott would have hidden something that big from me…"

When he still didn't answer I said through gritted teeth, "Friends don't hide things like that."

"Well, maybe friends would hide something like that from another friend to protect them."

"Protect them from what?"

"A number of things… _if _werewolves are real then maybe even knowing about it could get someone hurt. Aren't there hunters in like every werewolf movie ever made?" He countered, all but flat out admitting to me that this was all right.

I can't do this anymore. I thought I could handle this, that I was strong and brave enough to hear that one of my best friends was a werewolf, but when is one ever ready for that?

"Never mind." I loudly called out, as I suddenly had problems controlling the pitch of my voice, "I just haven't slept much since we found that body…" I tried to not only excuse it from him, but also to convince myself.

"Brie…" Stiles started to say, but I couldn't stomach whatever it was he had to say next. The way he was gearing up to talk, was like he going to drop a huge bombshell.

"We better get going… you never know the players might get hurt and coach will take you off the bench." I cheerfully called out, not sure how I even had a smile on my face when all I felt like doing was crawling back into the bed and pulling the blankets over my head.

Maybe that's what I'd do after the game tonight, just climb into the safety of my bed and forget about the world for a few days.

The drive to the game was awkward to say the least, every time he opened his mouth to say something, I'd quickly cut him off. Up until he finally stopped trying to talk to me and turned the radio on.

Stiles headed to the locker room to change once we got to the school and I headed for the field, looking around for Scott's mom or Stiles' dad –I normally sat with one of the both of them, but my search was cut short when I heard someone excitedly yelling out my name.

As my eyes drifted up over the crowd I saw Allison standing up and waving me over to her. I smiled politely and shook my head at the offer, but she called out, "Brie, come on!"

This must be what it's like to have friends who are girls… I'm supposed to stick to them like glue. What if she excuses herself to run into the restroom at some point, is it some unwritten rule that I'm supposed to follow her in there –or is that going to just make me look weird?

"Dad, this is my friend, Brie!" Allison excitedly introduced me to her father who stood from his seat and offered a smile as he said, "It's nice to meet you."

"You too Mr. Argent." I smiled back and shook the hand he'd extended to me before taking my seat next to Allison.

"Have you seen Scott?" She asked, leaning over and talking above the crowd that was quickly filling up the bleachers, "No, I rode with Stiles here."

"Oh." She said letting out a laugh, she opened her mouth to say something else but she didn't get a chance as Lydia walked over to us.

The popular redhead gave me a quick once over before she narrowed her eyes and said, "Oh, I didn't know you were sitting with us…"

Neither did I, Lydia –neither did I.

"Yeah." I said with a laugh that sounded half like a snort.

Oh dear god, could I be anymore awkward.

"What's wrong with you?" She blatantly asked me.

Good question.

"I… I don't know." I admitted with a sigh, until I saw Scott's mom making her way up the stairs and I said, "I'm just going to sit with-"

"No matter." She loudly said, cutting me off as she flipped her hair over her shoulder and gave me a lethal smile before she said, "I made two signs. Here you and Allison can hold this one up."

She plopped down beside me and pushed a poster board into my gloved hands, I looked down to see it said, '_We Luv U Jackson'._

Oh hell-to-the-no, I am not holding up this sign. I don't even want to touch this… why didn't I think to make Scott some sort of sign? Probably because I'm just used to both of my friends sitting on the bench all season.

"Here Allison." I whispered to her as I gave her the sign and said, "Lydia wants you to hold this up for her."

"Oh…" she breathed looking slightly confused before she frowned and admitted, "I didn't even think to make a sign for tonight."

I nodded in agreement, before I went back to figuring out where Scott's mom was sitting at. Ah! There she is, just a few rows in front of us. If I wait until our team scores I can slip away unnoticed from Allison and Lydia when everyone stands up to cheer. Then I'll have to slide between the family just in front of us, hopefully without knocking any of their kids over. Then it's just a short jump over the three containers of popcorn sitting on the bleachers in front of them.

If I can make it that far without breaking something, not only will it be a miracle but I'll be beside Melissa McCall and I can finally enjoy this game.

The team gathered on the field, and I started to work out my own plays to get away from Lydia Martin.

That was until the game started and I quickly got pulled into the excitement. It was obvious the million questions that she asked me, Allison was still trying to get the hang of lacrosse.

I kept my eyes on Scott, trying not to think about how he could possibly be hiding fangs under that helmet and claws inside of his gloves. He couldn't be a werewolf, he was still _just_ Scott and werewolves aren't real…

The other team lost the ball and there was a moment of confusion on the field as everyone looked around, all of a sudden Scott raced towards the center of the field; he must have located the ball.

My hope for him to get his moment in the sun was dashed when I saw Jackson racing right towards him as well. Jackson Whittemore, you selfish attention whore! You're supposed to be playing the other team, not taking out your own teammates, I thought as I saw him knock Scott to the ground before scoring a perfect shot.

A while later into the game Allison's dad leaned over and asked, "Which one is Scott, again?"

"Number eleven." I proudly announced, noticing for the first time how worried Allison appeared.

"Otherwise known as the one who hasn't caught a single ball this entire game." Lydia added in even though her opinion wasn't asked for.

I turned my head and shot her a look with narrowed eyes, which she returned with added venom.

"I hope Scott's okay." I heard Allison shakily breathe from beside me.

"I hope we're okay." Lydia countered, as she looked back to the field, practically staring a hole into the scoreboard.

I cocked my head to the side as I watched her, she acted like losing one lacrosse game would be the end of the world. Was dating the captain of the winning lacrosse team really that important to her?

"We need to win this thing." She announced as she grabbed her own poster board and stood up proudly displaying it as high above her head as she could get it.

When neither of us stood up, she looked down to us and said, "A little help here."

Begrudgingly, Allison picked up the board she'd been supplied with and stood up, un-enthusiastically holding it up above her head.

"Uh… you could help." Lydia hissed at me.

"I'm a little busy."

"Doing what? Being invisible?" She asked with raised eyebrows as my eyes met hers.

"You want to be noticed, make yourself noticeable. Stand up." She instructed.

Slowly I rose to my feet and grabbed onto the other side of her board and helped her hold it up. The BeaonHills fans saw us, and started to clap in to show their support for the team.

As I looked back out to the field, I saw Scott was watching us –well, mainly Allison but even from where I was sitting I could tell he was pissed.

Which worried me at first until he managed to get the ball when the game started back up, and he put the anger to good use; weaving between the opposing team and at one point almost even jumping over another player until he scored the shot!

Letting go of the poster and almost knocking Lydia over when I started to jump, I screamed out in excitement and smiled at Allison who looked just as excited as I was.

Coach started yelling for the players to pass to McCall, and Lydia angrily dropped her poster board after she realized Allison and I weren't going to help her anymore.

Scott continued to kick some serious ass on the field, at one point the other team deliberately passed him the ball and he'd fired a shot that burnt right through the goalie's stick netting.

With just seconds left on the clock, Scott managed to fire the winning shot right into the goal.

My cheering and screaming was drowned out by hundreds more, as everyone abandoned the bleachers and charged the field. I have been going to lacrosse games since middle school and I've never been to one this exciting before.

As the field started to clear out some, I managed to find Stiles standing next to his dad –the sheriff was on his phone and seemed really concerned with what was happening.

Walking up to them I raised my eyebrows in question to Stiles who shrugged in response, and we waited until he got off the phone and looked between us. With a tired smile he nodded a greeting to me and smiled back.

"Dad, what's wrong?" Stiles asked.

"Well the M.E. had a look at the other half of the body… and not only was there more animal hair found on it, but also bite marks. Whatever killed that girl was an animal and not Derek Hale." The sheriff explained.

"Well… he buried the body, that's something to hold him with right?" Stiles asked hopeful.

"It's not much to hold him on and there's something else. They ID'd the body; Laura Hale."

My mouth dropped opened as I stuttered, "Hale?"

Nodding the sheriff looked at me and said, "Derek's sister."

"But they're still holding him, right? I mean the guy-" Stiles started to argue, but his dad silenced him with a wave of the hand as he added, "It's done, Stiles. Let it go, they've already released him."

Animal hair and bite marks. I guess like stiles told me… if it howls like a wolf and bites like a wolf –it's a freaking werewolf. My stomach soured at the thought and there was bitter feeling on the back of my tongue, it was impossible and entirely plausible all at once.

I think I knew what was going on for a long time before I actually faced what was happening.

"We need to find Scott." Stiles said nudging my arm before he said bye to his dad and started for the school. I walked with him until my legs couldn't carry me any farther.

Noticing I wasn't with him, he looked over his shoulder before coming to a stop and turning around as he asked, "You're okay right?" He glanced around making sure no one else was listening to us, but we were pretty much the only ones out there. "I know it's a lot to take in, but you're okay?"

Scott is a werewolf. "I'm fine." I said with a feigned smile.

"You sure?" He asked seeming to not believe me, "He's still Scott…"

The summer between sixth and seventh grade when we all swore to be best friends for the rest of our lives –I didn't know that accepting werewolves was going to be a hidden clause.

"I know, I just, uh… I left my purse on the bleachers when we rushed the field." I said, excusing the lie because my bag was somewhere out there unattended.

"I need to find Scott to tell him about Derek, but I'll meet you at the jeep, okay?" He asked, I nodded and he jogged towards the school. When I turned around no one else was left on the field except for Jackson Whittemore, who was sitting on the team bench staring down to the ground.

Silently, I walked past him and up the metal bleachers. In the still of the night my every step sounded like thunder as it echoed in my ears. I located my bag and pulled it up on my shoulder before I sat down and tried to catch my breath. My throat was constricting from panic, somehow my hands were sweaty even though they were freezing through my gloves.

Leaning forward I managed to catch a breath. Scott was still Scott, he had to be. Just a stronger, faster version of him, but he was still one of my best friends. That's what I had to keep telling myself.

Finally mustering the strength to get to my feet, I made it back down to the grass where I saw Jackson lean down and pick something up.

I turned and tried to escape unnoticed, but failed as he yelled, "Hey, you."

"Aubrie." I asserted as I turned and yelled at him.

Rolling his eyes he said, "You're friends with McCall, right?"

Scott McCall, teenage werewolf –yup, I'm friends with him.

"Yeah, why?" I asked with an arched brow, as he walked over to me and demanded, "Explain this."

Looking down I saw the end of the fingers of the lacrosse glove were punctured from claws, it had to be Scott's glove.

Oh god, suddenly this all was just too real.

"Well?" He snapped shaking the glove in front of my face.

Would having any manners kill this guy, seriously? Not everyone on the face of this earth should bow down to him –I happen to be one of those people.

I opened my mouth to tell him that I had no idea what was going on and that even if I did, he'd be the last person I'd tell. But I stopped when I noticed he wasn't watching anymore. His eyes had drifted off to the side of the field, where there was someone standing in the direct path of the field lights.

Even though their front side was cast in shadows from intensity of the light behind them, I instantly knew who it was.

He turned and started to walk away, but this time I went after him. I wasn't sure what I was going to say or do. I still wanted to know why he was following me but now I had so many more questions.

"Derek." I called out as he kept walking away from me.

He didn't stop, he didn't even slow down.

"Derek!" I yelled, as I tried to block the lights from my eyes. It wasn't until I'd stumbled into the darkness behind the bleachers that I realized I was alone.

Or so I thought, until I looked around and nearly screamed when I saw Derek standing behind me.

"What?" He asked, his voice anything but friendly, "You and your friends getting me arrested wasn't enough?"

Yeah, I could see how you might be mad about that…

"That actually wasn't my doing… I don't think you're the killer." I quickly said, before I corrected, "Not anymore."

He raised his eyebrows, showing me my words didn't exactly help the situation at all.

"Scott's…" I swallowed hard in an attempt to keep my throat from completely closing and making me mute, "He's like you now right… not human?"

"I told you to stay out of it." He warned, as he took a step closer. And I was becoming ever more aware that we were alone out there.

"Maybe I don't want to."

I had no idea what I was saying, all I wanted to do was stay out of this.

"You should. People who go poking around in things they shouldn't be, normally end up dead."

I knew it wasn't a direct threat, but every word that came out of his mouth sounded like he was threating someone's life –mainly mine.

Remembering what Stiles said about the hunters earlier, I looked up with terror ridden wide eyes, "Is that what happened to your sister? She did something she shouldn't have? Is it hunters? Are they going after Scott?" I unleashed a fury of questions on him before I finally managed to shut my mouth.

He took another step closer, his eyes moving back and forth like he was searching my face for some kind of tell. I'm pretty sure my heart stopped beating the second he walked up to me, how I'm still standing and functioning is a mystery to me.

"Stay out of it." He repeated, and my eyes watched his mouth form every single word before I managed to look back up at his eyes.

Without another word, he turned and started to walk away from me.

Pulling in a ragged breath I quietly said, "For what it's worth, I'm sorry about your sister…"

He stopped, and looked at me from over his right shoulder h is stone expression giving nothing away.

"There you are!"

Spinning around I gasped from surprise when Stiles snuck up on me.

"What are you doing back here?" he asked giving me a confused look before continuing, "Who were you talking too?"

Looking behind me I saw Derek had managed to disappear into the darkness like he always did.

"No one… I just thought I saw something." I lied, forging a smile as I said, "Let's go… I just want to go home."

* * *

><p><strong>AN- Thanks for reading! ^_^ I really hope you all liked the chapter. **

**If you're interested in checking it out, I have a new Pretty Little Liars -Jason/OC story up called, 'Whispers in the Dark' and also my collab partner and I are currently only the 4th installment of Teen Wolf Blue Moon Series 'A New Blue Moon'**

**I hope you all had an amazing holiday season and I wish you all nothing but the best for 2015!**


	5. Seeing Red

**It's Just a Trick of the Moonlight**

**Chapter Five – Seeing Red**

* * *

><p>"So you killed her?" Stiles questioned.<p>

"I don't know, I woke up." Scott sighed as we walked into the school.

My best friend was a werewolf and my other best friend seemed to think the whole thing was pretty cool. I, however, did not think it was cool at all.

Since we unearthed the body of Derek sister, I'd been having nightmares and hardly sleeping. Now add onto that the stress of Scott not being human anymore and my stomach was in a constant knot of tension. Not to mention that we still didn't know who killed Laura Hale –well, I didn't know. Scott and Stiles still seemed to believe the killer was Derek.

Now, here I am –trying to act perfectly normal and okay with the situation –while Scott explained how he had a very vivid dream where he ripped Allison apart on a school bus.

Once we got into the school he continued, "I was sweating like crazy and I couldn't breathe. I've never had a dream where I woke up like that before."

"Really? I have… usually ends a little differently." Stiles freely admitted, causing Scott to groan and I hung my head as I breathed, "Oh my god."

"A: I meant I've never had a dream that felt that real. And B: never give me that much detail about you in bed again." Scott complained.

I laughed and nodded in response –and for a moment, despite the fact that Scott had a dream about killing someone, it felt like the way things used to be. Maybe I really could handle this, they both seemed to be managing okay. Maybe I can too.

"Noted." Stiles nodded, before he nudged me and asked, "What about you Brie… you ever have a dream where you've woke up like that."

He did so not just ask me that!

Seeing my face Scott laughed, "She wouldn't tell us even if she did."

"She'd tell us, we're her best friends." Stiles argued before looking at me, with his eyebrows raised in question –as if that were a question I'd _actually_ answer.

"I…." I said looking between them and waiting until they both looked really interested in my answer, "Need to make more friends."

Scott laughed, but Stiles nudged him as he reasoned, "She's not answering us… totally means she has."

"It does not!" I squealed, coming to a stop to face them in the hallway as I continued, "It just means that I need friends who are girls."

"You don't need anyone else, you've got us." Stiles said with a wink as he threw an arm around my shoulders and pulled me down the hallway with them as Scott continued to go into detail about his nightmare.

"Let me take a guess here…" Stiles started to say but Scott cut him off in a slightly whiney voice as he reasoned, "You think it has something to do with me going out with Allison tomorrow. Like I'm gonna lose control and rip her throat out."

And suddenly, nothing felt like the way it used to be anymore… nothing seemed normal.

"No, of course not…" Stiles tried to lie, but we saw through it and he sighed, "Yeah, that's totally it."

I wanted to speak up and tell Scot that he shouldn't go on his date with Allison –that if there was even a snowballs chance in hell that he could kill or maim her in any way, he needed to cancel. But I couldn't.

Talking about any of that out loud would only make it real. And I was still desperately trying to convince myself that this was a bad dream or some kind of sick prank.

"Personally, I think you're handling this pretty freaking amazingly. It's not like there's a lycanthropy for Beginners class you can take." Stiles said as he let go of me and slapped Scott reassuringly on the back.

I opened my mouth to point out that since as far as we know, Scott hasn't killed anyone –I'm inclined to side with Stiles that our friend was handling this pretty well. But before I could Stiles nodded towards me and said, "And look at Brie, she pretty much just found out and she's doing great."

"Yeah… yeah… I'm totally fine." I said with a wide, hopefully believable smile that made me seem confident and not like I was a few knife cuts away from looking like The Joker.

"You sure?" Scott asked. Was part of being a werewolf being able to see through lies? Maybe dishonesty had some sort of scent he could pick up on. Oh god, think Brie… say something fast.

"Maybe the dream is just you being stressed about the date with Allison?" I practically yelled as we came to a stop at my locker, "I mean you guys kissed and you said it was great –maybe you're subconsciously afraid that you can't recreate it or something?" I stared between them with wide eyes and a fleeting sense of being in control.

Scott loudly groaned and threw himself back against the locker beside mine as he whined, "No! I wasn't worried about that until now!"

Giving him an apologetic smile, I turned to my locker and started to put my combination in when I heard Stiles say, "Maybe she's got a point, Scott. She did read all of those books about dream interpretation."

Seeming to forget about his current troubles Scott laughed, "Yeah, because she dreamed for like a month straight that she turned into a cat."

"It wasn't a cat!" I corrected, narrowing my eyes at them, "I kept dreaming about turning into a panther –thank you very much. Much larger and more threatening than a cat!"

They both laughed and I grabbed the books I'd need for my morning classes before shutting my locker and turning to face them.

"Maybe there's not a class I can take… but maybe there's a teacher." Scott said as we started towards the exit to take a short cut to the other side of the school.

"Who Derek?" Stiles loudly said, before slapping the back of Scott's head and pointing out, "Did you forget about us getting him tossed in jail?"

With a wince of pain in his tone, Scott rubbed the back of his head and said, "Yea, I know… but chasing her, dragging her to the back of the bus, it just felt so real."

"How real?" I asked, swallowing hard when I realized I hadn't seen Allison since we'd gotten to the school.

"Like it actually happened." Scott admitted, seeming apologetic like he could tell I wasn't really okay with any of this.

I shuddered at the thought and followed behind them out of the doors, running right into the back of stiles when he came to a sudden stop. I was going to yell at him for doing that –he had a bad habit of just stopping abruptly when I was behind him, but once I saw the school bus with the door torn open and blood everywhere. I closed my mouth tight, afraid if I even opened my lips to say something I'd lose my breakfast.

Moments later we were back inside of the school, they were walking in front of me and I was tagging along several steps behind them. It just figures, I finally start to make a new friend –and I'll be damned if Scott didn't possible kill her the night before.

"She's probably fine." I could hear Stiles trying to offer him some words of comfort.

"She's not answering my texts, Stiles!" Scott snapped before looking over his shoulder and ordering, "Call her again!"

Um, hello? Can you not see the phone at my ear?

"Maybe it's a coincidence –a seriously amazing coincidence." Stiles continued to offer excuses.

When it went to voicemail, I came to a stop ending the call and redialing her number but when I looked back up Scott was gone and Stiles was down at the very end of the hallway, rubbing a hand over the top of his head as he looked around, my guess was trying to locate our friend.

I jogged and caught up with Stiles, and we both walked at a fast pace until we finally found him. Knelt down on the floor helping a very alive Allison gather her papers and books.

Rubbing my forehead I breathed a sigh of relief and looked over to Stiles who look equally as relieved.

Scott might have been a werewolf, but at least he hadn't ripped Allison to shreds… yet –small victories, right?

**~()~**

Every last ounce of calm I'd felt before classes started when I saw Allison as alive, were shattered towards the end of 2nd period when I looked out of the classroom window and saw them wheeling a bloody man on a gurney towards an abundance.

He was a bloody cut up mess –but he was alive; which still meant Scott hadn't killed anyone, but it also meant he was dangerous, he was _capable_ of killing someone.

By the time I'd made it lunch, I practically collapsed into my seat at our usual table wondering what I was going to say when Scott sat down. I was trying so hard to keep looking at him as my friend and I was determined to stick by him, but I'd only be able to look the other way for so long if bodies started to pile up.

I hadn't even had time to collect my thoughts before Stiles dropped into a seat beside me, managing to spill only a few green beans off of his tray and Scott sat down across from us, dropping his book bag into the seat next to him.

"What makes you so sure that Derek even has all of the answers?" Stiles asked.

Upon hearing the older werewolf's name, I straightened up in my seat some to pay attention to their conversation.

"Because!" Scott loudly exclaimed before looking around to make sure no one was listening, "He wasn't changed during the full moon, he was in total control. While I was running around in the middle of the night attacking some totally innocent guy."

"You don't know that." Stiles argued.

"I don't not know it." Scott corrected, then added, "If I can't figure out someway to control this, then I can't go out with Allison. I'll have to cancel."

"No, you're not canceling. You can't just cancel your entire life." Stiles said looking to me for support as he continued, "We'll figure this out."

"Yeah." I nodded, not sure I believed a word that came out of my own mouth anymore. "Besides, Derek didn't really seem all that mad that you guys got him arrested."

Oops.

I felt my blood starting to heat up, practically glowing under my skin as they both turned their heads and stared at me, "Oh my god, you talked to him again?" Scott groaned as he stared at me.

I didn't even need to look over at Stiles to know the matching disappointed and shocked expression that he was watching me with.

"When?" Stiles asked.

Stabbing my fork through a few green beans on my plate, I shrugged, "After the lacrosse game…"

"That's what you were doing behind the bleachers?" Stiles realized, dropping his own fork to the glass plate on his tray with a loud clank.

"What?" Scott gasped his eyes wide, "What were you doing behind the bleachers with Derek?"

My jaw dropped and I started to answer before Lydia loudly asked, "She was behind the bleachers with who?"

She sat her tray down on the table next to Scott and looked between all of us, clearly waiting on an answer as she sat down.

"Uh…" Stiles stuttered, not able to form a sentence as he stared at the popular teen.

"No-nobody." Scott stuttered out, trying to come to my rescue, but she clearly didn't buy it.

Not that I had the time to care about what Lydia Martin thought when a popular lacrosse player sat down next to me and Danny sat down beside Stiles, within seconds out table was filled with the most popular students at our school.

Stiles smiled and nodded awkwardly at them as he scooted his chair a little closer to mine, obviously just as uncomfortable as me by our usual empty table being invaded by the popular kids.

I looked over to the guy beside me, who flashed a winning smile before nodding at me.

What in the holy hell is happening? Holding onto my tray I tried to stealthily scoot closer to Stiles and away from the jock who'd smiled at me, but the plan backfired when my chair made a loud screeching noise across the floor.

.God… that did not just happen to me. Raising my head I noticed everyone at the table was staring at me, except for stiles who had his head lowered, cringing along with my pain. Oh yeah, it happened. They all saw it.

Letting out a nervous laugh, I scooted my chair closer to the table and looked up to see one of the girls was looking at my plate of food. I glanced down to my normal school lunch: a slice of pizza, green beans, a cup of pudding and today I'd also gotten an orange.

What is her problem, it's normal food… nothing to be staring at. Or at least I thought so, until I stole a glance at her tray and noticed all she had on the glass plate was 4 little trees of cooked broccoli and a small bottle of water.

This is going to be a long, painful lunch. Tomorrow I'll sit outside or something.

"Get up." Jackson ordered to one of the other students at the end of the table.

And things just got worse; maybe I'll slide away and just find an empty table somewhere else to eat.

"How come you never ask Danny to get up?"

"Because I don't stare at his girl-friends coin slot." Danny shot back at him.

Almost immediately the table came alive with conversation, it seemed liked everyone but Stiles and I were openly invited to participate in. He slouched down in his seat and took his phone out, my guess was he was pretending to be busy.

I tried to not make eye contact with anyone as I got to work peeling my orange and listening to the buzzing around me from everyone's voices. Until Danny said something that made me look up with wide eyes, "So I hear they're saying it was some kind of animal attack."

"Probably a cougar." Someone else said.

"I heard mountain lion." Jackson asserted as if his theory was any more relevant that the others.

"A cougar is a mountain lion." Lydia breathed sounding annoyed and catching everyone off guard. When Jackson looked at her surprised she tried to play dumb and laughed, "isn't it?"

"Who cares? They guy was probably just some homeless tweaker who's gonna die anyway." Jackson groaned.

This is exactly why I never wanted to sit with these jerks at lunch. How can you have such little disregard for human life.

"Actually…" Stiles breathed as he sat up in his chair and held his phone out, "I just found out who it is, check it out."

Everybody leaned in to see the screen on his phone as he played the news video.

"_The Sheriff's Department won't speculate on the details of the incident, but confirmed the victim, Garrison Meyers did survive the attack. Meyers was taken to a local hospital where he remains in critical condition."_

"I… I know this guy!" Scott admitted to the table.

"You do?" Allison asked from beside him as she took a drink of her water.

I lowered my head, of course he knows the guy… he's the reason he's in critical condition.

"Yeah, when I used to take the bus when I lived with my dad. He was the driver." Scott said.

"Did he ever make you mad or anything?" I asked without thinking, but I was trying to figure out why –out of all the people in Beacon hill's he'd attacked the bus driver.

"No, I don't think so." Scott admitted with a shrug.

"Can we talk about something slightly more fun, please? Like, oh, where are we going tomorrow night?" Lydia asked.

When Allison looked over Lydia continued, "You said you and Scott were hanging out tomorrow night, right?"

"Um, we were thinking what we were gonna do…" Allison said.

Lydia continued to talk and Scott blurted out, "Hanging out?"

I lowered my head, he kept talking to me and Stiles about his _date _with Allison.

"Like the four of us?" He continued to ask.

I looked up to see Stiles cup a hand over his own mouth and shake his head, trying to get Scott to shut up, but he didn't pay attention as he turned to Allison and asked, "Do you want to hang out, like us, and them?"

"Yeah, I guess. Sounds fun." Allison said nodding.

…and it just got too painful to watch. Scott had been looking forward to his date, and now apparently they were just hanging out as friends with Lydia and Jackson. Ouch.

Excusing myself from the table, even though it was pointless because no one even acknowledged me leaving I dropped my tray and waited outside of the cafeteria until the bell rang.

Keeping my eyes on the crowd pushing their ways out of the door, I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Scott and Stiles without the popular kids tailing them.

As I rushed for them I heard Stiles say, "We'll just ask Brie, she's a girl."

"Indeed I am." I spoke up causing them both to turn and look at me.

When Scott remained silent, Stiles spoke up, "You heard what happened at lunch… if Allison said _hanging out _it could still be a date… right?"

"Oh, well, um…" I breathed not wanting to say what I was thinking.

"Oh god." Scott groaned, when my silence gave him the answer he was dreading.

"But there's still a chance, right?" Stiles pushed, trying to get to me to agree but I wasn't going to lie to Scott.

"There's always a chance." I said, causing Stiles to throw his arms up in the air as if to say 'I told you so'.

Unfortunately for Scott, I wasn't done talking, "But… when I tell Sheila I'm going somewhere with you guys, I say we're hanging out…"

"Oh god." Scott groaned again hanging his head, "It's worse than I thought!"

I frowned and Stiles shot me a disbelieving look as he said, "You could have just left it at there's always a chance!"

"No, she's right. You say you're hanging out with friends… not for a date." Scott said as he leaned against the lockers and pinned his eyes shut, as if it were the end of the world.

"Look, I know I said we should ask Brie, but she doesn't count. She's never been on an actual date." Stiles blurted out apparently trying to make Scott feel better at my expense.

"Neither have you!" I yelled back at him, feeling offended.

"That's not the point." He argued, before he sighed and admitted, "The whole situation is screwed up. Brie, you missed the last of it… it was like watching a car wreck. It turned into a whole group date thing and then he said he was good at bowling!"

"What?" I almost screamed at them, reaching out to slap Scott's shoulder as I scolded, "You're a terrible bowler!"

"I know, god! I don't know what I was thinking!" Scott continued to panic as Stiles put his head in his hands and mumbled inaudibly.

"Maybe… maybe this isn't really as bad as it sounds!" I offered, as I smiled and pointed out, "Last year you were terrible at lacrosse too."

"How is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"That you got bit and changed everything, if you can go from being one of the worst lacrosse players to a shining star overnight… it can't be that hard to use your werewolf-ness to get good at bowling."

"But that's just it, I don't know how to control it. I don't know how to do anything! I somehow managed to make first line, and the team captain wants to destroy me and now all she wants to do is _hang out_."

"I hate those words." Stiles nodded with an empathetic expression.

"You're completely over-reacting. Look, first things first. All you need to do is get through tomorrow night, if she think's you're just going as friends then you need to make her want it to be something else." I tried to explain, but couldn't as he nodded frantically and asked, "How do I do that?"

"Just be yourself." I smiled, then bit down on the inside of my cheek as I added, "Maybe dress up a little. Some cologne wouldn't hurt… and you should do something with your hair."

Nodding and hanging on my every word, Scott asked, "Do what with my hair?"

Plastering a smile on I said, "Cut it…"

"I'm not cutting my hair!" He shot back and I could see Stiles holding back a laugh from beside us.

"Fine… just do something different, make it look like you're at least making an effort. And open doors for her… pay for everything, even if she tries to –don't let her. You're going to be fine, Scott." I smiled, "She likes you, I can tell."

He smiled back seeming relieved until Stiles said, "Yeah, do everything Brie said… and just try not to attack and kill her."

"Not helping!" He groaned frustrated.

**~(Later that night)~**

"So Derek said to do what exactly when you get to the bus?" I asked, after climbing past where Scott was sitting in the passenger seat of Stiles' jeep to get to my usual spot in the back.

"I'm supposed to use my senses, see it, feel it. Somehow my senses are supposed to remember for me." He explained looking over his shoulder at me.

"Isn't that just awesome!" Stile exclaimed, excitedly slamming a hand down the steering wheel.

"Totally awesome… now are your senses supposed to remember before or after we get caught by the police and arrested for tampering with evidence at a crime scene?" I asked, with a feigned cheerfulness in my voice.

"We said you didn't have to come with us." Stiles reminded me.

And I almost didn't. But they were my best friend's and we normally did everything together. So much was changing that I wanted to try and hold onto something that was the same –so here I am tagging along on another harebrained scheme that will probably either get me; grounded, arrested or killed.

I climbed up into the passenger seat of the car and watched as they argued outside of the fence for a bit, before Scott effortlessly climbed it and Stiles came back to the jeep, slamming the door behind him.

"What happened?" I asked, looking over at him.

"He always gets to be batman." He grumbled as he slouched down in his seat, before laying his head back and sighing, "So what are we doing tomorrow?"

"What are you talking about?"

He gave me a look like I should have already known before he rolled his eyes and said, "Scott's going out will Allison… so what are we doing?"

Before I could inform him that I didn't want to do anything, I'd planned for a relaxing night at home trying to forget about werewolves and the supernatural. He said, "You're good a bowling, we could go bowling too."

"And what?" I laughed, "just happen to show up at the lane next to Scott and Allison? He'd kill us… and he's got the claws and fangs to do it now."

Eh, suddenly my own joke just terrified me –it was true he could easily kill someone, he very well might have already almost killed the bus driver.

"Plus, I don't want to spend my night spying on Scott…" I started to add, but then I saw a flashlight moving around the bus lot, "Oh my god, Stiles… we have to go!" I yelled, hitting his shoulder until he saw what I'd seen.

I climbed into the backseat and he started to repeatedly honk the horn, for a moment I was thinking we were going to have to leave and save ourselves until Scott finally emerged from the bus and raced for the fence, jumping up onto a car and flipping clear over the top of the metal fence.

"Did it work?" I yelled as he jumped into he jeep. Nodding he yelled at Stiles, "Go, go! Drive!"

"Did you remember?" Stiles asked after getting the jeep turned around and speeding off so fast I was grabbed onto anything I could to stay in my spot on the seat.

"Yeah, I was there last night and the blood… a lot of it was mine." He admitted.

"So you did attack him?" I gasped, still not wanting to believe it was possible.

"no!" He argued, "I saw glowing eyes on the bus, but they weren't mine… it was Derek."

"But the driver-"

"I think I was actually trying to protect him." Scott admitted, seeming relieved. As was I.

"Wait, why would Derek help you remember that he attacked the driver?" Stiles brought a valid point.

"That's what I don't get." He nodded.

"It's got to be a pack thing." I spoke up, Stiles nodded, "Exactly what I was thinking."

"Well someone fill me in." Scott complained.

"Like an initiation, you do the kill together." Stiles spoke up before I could he said the exact thing I was thinking.

"Because ripping someone's throat out is a real bonding experience?" Scott asked, before saying, "Wait, how is it that you guys even know this much?"

"Because you ditched us all summer to practice for lacrosse. We watched a lot of horror movies." I added in.

Only now it wasn't just in the movies anymore, these nightmares were real and I have a feeling like things were going to get a lot worse before getting any better.

"She's right." Stiles nodded, "But Scott this is good news, you didn't attack the driver which means you're not a killer and it also means that-"

"I can go out with Allison." Scott gasped, a smile on his face.

"I was gonna say it means you're not going to rip your best friend's apart… but yeah…" Stiles said.

**~()~**

My uncle was gone –traveling for work again and my aunt was already in bed by the time I got inside.

I kicked my shoes off at the door and stretched with a yawn before making my way into the kitchen. I sat down at the counter island and looked at my phone, answering a few missed texts from Allison and debated whether I was actually hungry enough to eat or too tired.

Finally, I decided I just wanted to change clothes for the night and crawl into the warm safety of my bed. Standing up I walked over to the large glass doors leading out into the backyard and made sure the handles were locked. But just as I looked back out, I saw something moving in the woods.

I started to panic before I realized it was probably just Derek being creepy and watching me again, which even though I wasn't a fan of. It was a little less scary now that I knew he had a habit of stalking me and my house.

Sighing I unlocked the handle and started to pull the door open, I'm not sure what I was going to do but it seemed like a good time to confront him and demand he either give me a valid reason for all of the spying, or he'd have to stop it.

But I stopped as I saw a pair of red, glowing eyes cutting through the darkness of the night. From what I'd found out, Scott's eyes glowed yellow – I didn't know about Derek's eyes but something told me it wasn't Derek who was watching the house. All though, I suddenly wished he was out there to scare who –or whatever that thing was off.

Quickly closing the door and locking it up again, I stared into the woods until the red eyes grew so dim they disappeared into the darkness. What the hell was that thing and what was it doing outside of my house?

Spinning around I raced up the stairs. I was going to jump into my bed, pull the blankets over my head and not think about anything else –because I'd had enough werewolf concerns already. I couldn't handle anymore.

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><p><strong>AN - Hey guys thanks so much for reading! Derek is back next chapter and there will be a lot of Derek/Brie interaction!**


	6. Hunters

**It's Just a Trick of the Moonlight**

**Chapter Six –Hunters  
><strong>

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><p>Checking the time on my phone I sighed and slide it back into my pocket, I'd lost track of time at the library while trying to learn as much about werewolves as I possibly could.<p>

That's right, I'm so exciting that on a Friday night, I end up being the last person out of a public library –other than the paid workers that is.

Dan's out of town for work again, this time he drove and Sheila needed her car for work that day, so I was left walking to and from the library which wouldn't have been a big deal it wasn't going on 9:30pm which happened to be the county wide curfew for anyone under 18.

Not to mention the towns current werewolf problems. Yep. I'm guessing I've got a 50/50 shot of actually making it back home alive.

After several minutes of walking down a streetlight illuminated road, I cut across the street to a 24-hour gas station planning to grab a drink and a snack for the rest of my walk. I was standing near the back of the store surveying the bottled sodas when I heard a car pull in, looking out of the windows next to me, I felt my eyes widen as Derek got out of his car at one of the gas pumps.

Coincidence or was he back to following me? My eyes narrowed slightly at the thought, if he was following me the least he could have done was offered me a ride so I wouldn't be out here walking at night.

But when he didn't look over at me, I figured he must not have known I was there which gave me two options, stay inside and hidden until he left or make my presence known and maybe get him to drive me home.

Deciding for the moment, at least I was going to stay hidden, I ventured across the store away from the windows he was near and looked over the chip display. But that didn't last long when I realized if I wanted a ride, I needed to let him know I was there at least.

But when I walked back over to the windows I saw two cars had blocked Derek's Camaro. Oh my god, are these the hunters? Are they going to kill him right here, in public?

Derek took the nozzle from his car and replaced on the pump, before putting the gas cap back on his car.

I watched two guys get out of the large silver SUV behind his car, one of them was holding a rifle –or some kind of bigger gun down to his side.

Holy shit, this is real. This is happening… should I write down license plate numbers or something…

Watching as the driver of the red SUV got out of the car blocking the front of the Camaro, I gasped at seeing it was Allison's dad! Allison's Argent's dad is a hunter and Scott and Stiles neglected to tell me this?

My heart was beating painfully fast against my ribcage and I had no idea what to do as the three men closed in on Derek who stood in place next to his car.

Derek looked around and then over to the building, his eyes meeting mine as he looked surprised to see me. I can only guess he could hear my heart from where he was with his werewolf hearing.

Should I go out there? Maybe the hunters will leave if they see me…

Almost as if he could hear my thoughts, Derek shook his head just barely enough for me to see, before he looked away and back to the hunters.

I leaned down almost entirely out of sight, but continued to watch as Allison's dad, picked up one the gas station supplied window cleaners and started to wash Derek's window.

What the hell is wrong with this man, I wondered as he went on to even use the squeegee side of the cleaner to get the water and streaks off of it. When I'd meat Mr. Argent at the lacrosse game he seemed like a nice, normal dad –but now I'm realizing he is anything but.

I watched in horror from inside the safety of the gas station as the two other guys, including the one with the gun took a few steps closer to Derek.

I know that I should do something –but what is that something? I have friends and my aunt and uncle… I'm only 16, I don't want to die. And why should I risk my life for Derek anyways? He might as well be a perfect stranger – a perfectly creepy stranger with stalkerish tendencies towards me.

No, I'm not going to die for him. I'm just going to crouch down here and wait until the entire thing is over. After all if we both end up dead, that leaves no one to tell the police who the murderers are.

I started to duck out of sight until I saw Derek's hand clench into a fist at his side. Holy crap… I think I just scored a front row ticket to a werewolf/hunter smack down. Yeah, this is really about to happen –Derek's going to rip at least one of them apart before the one the with the gun kills him.

Wait…

Derek unclenched his fist? He's not even going to fight them and there's three of them ganging up on him. This isn't right… not a bit of this is right.

I should just turn and walk away, that's the sensible thing to do. But the idea of them teaming up to possibly kill someone who as far as I know their only crime is being an asshole half the time –made my blood run cold.

Okay, here's what I'll do. I'll grab a soda and candy… if I pay for that and go outside and the standoff is still happening, I'll do something. If not, I'll turn and run home like the scared girl, I actually am right now.

After paying for my things and giving a nervous smile to the cashier who'd been watching me weave and duck around the window for a while now I pushed open the door the cold night air smacking me in the face and stealing my breath.

"See? You can actually look through your windshield now, see how that makes everything so much clearer?" Allison's dad asked, his tone was anything but friendly.

He turned and started to walk away. Internally I breathed a sigh of relief because externally I was afraid to move a single muscle.

"You forgot to check the oil." Derek called after them.

Oh crap, this is it… he's sealed his fate. I relayed as Mr. Argent smugly smiled and called out to his fellow hunters, "Check the man's oil."

The guy with the gun let out a low menacing laugh, and he walked towards where Derek was standing with the gun in his hand. He was either going to shoot Derek or hurt the car, I have no clue which one and if I don't manage to get myself killed I may be able to stop this.

Pulling in a deep breath I almost choked on, I rushed over towards them, trying to play innocent to the entire situation as I called out, "Hey, they didn't have the drink you wanted so I grabbed Pepsi… hope that's okay."

Before Derek could respond to me, I'd shoved the bag into his hand as he stared at me with a look falling somewhere on the spectrum between complete shock and instant anger.

Turning around and acting surprised to see Allison's dad, I threw him a smile and said, "Oh, hi Mr. Argent."

From the corner of my eye I saw the guy with the gun trying to conceal it behind him, as Allison's father made a hand gesture towards him.

"It's Brie, right?" He asked, looking between me and Derek.

"Yeah, we met at the game." I continued, trying to keep a smile on my face and my voice strong but my calm composure was fading by the second. My knees felt wobbly, and sweat was starting to sting my eyes.

He nodded, giving me a smile but his eyes remained slightly narrowed like he was trying to figure out what I was doing there.

"You know there's a county wide curfew." He continued to say.

"Yeah, I was hoping to make it home before 9:30 but we can't really go anywhere when you blocked us in." I pointed out with a laugh, that I'm pretty sure could have given a madman a run for his money. I kept my peripheral vision locked on the armed man, even though it was becoming clearer and clearer he wouldn't need that gun to kill me –I was about to drop dead from a heart attack.

He glanced over at his own car before he slowly nodded, "I was just about to get out of your _friend's _way. Just making a quick stop."

I held my breath, the same smile still on my face. Turning he started back for his car and the other hunters got in their own car.

I glanced at Derek over my shoulder, but he didn't see me. His gaze was still locked on Allison's dad.

Just as he opened up his door he nodded towards Derek, but kept his eyes on me as he warned, "You should be careful –sometimes people aren't what they seem."

Thanks for the words of warning Mr. Argent, but you're a case and point of that yourself.

I nodded, throwing my hand up in a wave and hoping he'd just get in his damn car and leave already.

"Drive safe."

His words hung in the air long after he and the other hunters had left.

Turning to face Derek, I wiped my forehead as I breathed, "Wow, I really thought we were goners there for a second."

I'd probably just saved his life, you thought that would have earned me a smile from him –at the very least a thank you. But did I get any of that?

No, no I did not. Instead of him thanking me or being remotely appreciative, I was met by a pair of glowing blue eyes and a slight growl to his voice as he asked, "What are you doing?"

My eyes widened and I backed up, running into his car and damned neared falling over until he grabbed onto my arm and kept me up. But he didn't let go once I was steadied.

"What part of this-" He angrily said as he shook his head back and forth like he'd done earlier, "Don't you understand?"

"I, uh… I understand the gesture. But I don't understand what the big deal is, I mean I practically saved-" I started to say but he didn't let me finish as he snapped, "What you did was probably paint a target on yourself."

My eyebrows lowered in confusion at his words, "Why do you even care?"

"I don't." He quickly answered, finally releasing his hold on my arm, "I just don't need you and your friends messing things up any more than you already have."

Fine, I can take a hint.

"Alright, the next time I see you surrounded by hunters… I'll just walk away." I said looking down I pulled the bag away from him I'd pushed into his hand and spun on my heels to walk away.

Apparently him being an even bigger jerk is the thanks I get for saving his life –well, I won't make that mistake twice.

I'd barely made it several steps before I heard his voice again, "Where's your car?"

"I don't have one." I answered slowing down as I looked over my shoulder to see he was still standing in the same spot I'd left him, only now he looked twice as annoyed. As it if was my fault for not having a car or something.

I started to turn around to continue my walk, but he opened up the passenger door of his car and gruffly said, "Get in."

Does this guy only have one tone and manner in which he speaks to people? Because he's always just ordering everyone around so rudely.

Even so, the idea of walking home in a town where apparently my friend's parents could be hunters and I'd been none the wiser was no longer the least bit appealing.

Sighing in defeat, I turned and walked back to the car and got into the passenger seat, jumping slightly as he slammed the door behind me.

On second thought, maybe walking home wouldn't be so bad…

Not that I had much of a chance to change my mind as he got into the driver seat and sped off, I didn't know if he was worried the hunters would come back or if he always drove that fast. Either way; I pulled my seatbelt on because if we wrecked only one of us had supernatural healing abilities.

The car ride was silent as he sped in the direction of my house, I kept my right hand down at my side with my fingers crossed hoping my aunt would be home from work when we got there, but when he pulled to a stop at the end of the driveway my heart sank.

She must be at her office finishing up some paperwork, which meant I was going to be home alone –which normally was completely fine with me, but not so much when I'd just seen a pair of red glowing eyes in the woods the night before.

"What?" Derek asked when I hesitated to open up the door.

"My aunt's not here…" I admitted.

When I looked over he shrugged like he didn't understand what the big deal was. I'm sure to him the red glowing eyes probably wouldn't have been a big deal, but it terrified the crap out of me.

"It's just…" I breathed, still not sure if I trusted him enough to say I wasn't sure when she might be home and I'd be stuck in the house by myself.

"What were you on your way to do?" I asked trying my best to smile and appear friendly, because somehow tagging along with him even though he seemed annoyed with everything I said or did was better than being alone at the house.

"Why?" He asked, not giving anything away.

What is it with him and one word sentences?

"I just thought… I don't know, maybe I could go with you…"

He stared at me until I finally had to look away, then he said, "You don't want to."

My eyes nearly bugged out of my head, why wouldn't I want to go with him? Was he going to kill someone or something?

"Why?" I gasped, my voice a little too loud for the small interior of his car, "Are you going off on some sort of top secret werewolf mission?"

I thought it was a valid question until he turned his head and looked at me and cocked a brow as he repeated, "Top secret werewolf mission?"

"Why else wouldn't I want to go with you?"

Besides the fact that you're a dick 99.9% of the time.

Rolling his eyes he breathed, "I can smell your fear."

Yikes! Can he smell every emotion, could he tell what I was thinking when I noticed how unbelievably hot he looked when he was lead out of his house in handcuffs. Oh my god… I bet he could, I bet he knows what I'm thinking right now too. Damn this racing heart!

Quickly I said, "I'm not afraid of you!"

I might have seemed to answer that a little too fast but really it was because I was trying to stop thinking about how when it came to him, creepy, rude and hot all seemed to go hand in hand.

He opened his mouth to say something, but I was terrified now. What if he pointed out this recent affect his presence seemed to have on me. I'd die, I would literally die from embarrassment and then he would be a murderer, just not in the way Scott and Stiles seemed to think.

"I just don't want to be home alone." I admitted, knowing I was going to drop some truth bombs to hopefully reach the humanity in him so I could tag along on whatever werewolf mission he was on, "Last night when I got home I saw something in the woods and I just-"

"What did you see?" He pushed, apparently not caring enough to hear the end of my sentence.

"I know Scott's eyes glow yellow… and I saw yours glowing blue back there at the gas station –but last night, I something. It's probably nothing… but there was a pair of red eyes in the woods bordering my house." I admitted, before noticing the look on his face.

"You know who it was?"

"No." Her sternly added, before switching his car back into drive and pulling away from my house with me still in the car with him.

"But you know what it means?" I pushed, knowing he knew _way_ more about this than I did and I wanted to be in the loop.

"It's not nothing." Was the only answer I got, that didn't even begin to cover half of my questions or ease a single one of my fears.

"That doesn't make me feel any better." I tried to joke, with a pathetic attempt at a laugh.

"It's not supposed to."

My god, is his sole mission in life to just scare the crap out of everyone around him?

I watched the clock on the car radio for nearly ten minutes before I finally blew out a breath, hating the silence of the car as I asked, "So… where are we going?"

Not taking his eyes off of the road he responded, "Secret werewolf mission."

My eyes flicked over in his direction, he was either attempting to joke with me or flat out making fun of what I'd said earlier –either way I couldn't help but let out a small laugh.

The drive remained silent, but at least it wasn't an awkward silence.

"Uh… What are we doing here?" I scrambled through my questions, as my fingers fumbled to get the seat belt unlatched as he wasted no time parking and getting out of the car.

Once I got out, I realized he was waiting for me at the front of the car, which was a relief as I looked back to the local hospital and asked, "What are we doing here?"

"Going to see the bus driver, I need to know what he remembers." He simply responded.

I guess that was a step up from having to forcefully pry one word answers out of him.

"Scott said you were on the bus too… but he- well, none of us understand why you helped him remember if you almost killed the driver."

"I didn't attack the driver."

"Then who did?"

"Remember the red eyes you saw?"

My eyes widened and he nodded in response before turning and walking for the door.

Silently, I walked behind him but I was liking this plan less and less by the second. I'm very aware that Scott's mom has been picking up night shifts at the hospital, and the last thing I wanted to do was run into her with Derek.

She'd expect me to introduce them and she'd probably get the wrong idea or say something embarrassing. Not to mention she'd tell Scott she saw me and then he and Stiles would get mad at me all over again for talking to Derek. Which I didn't understand, somehow it made sense in their minds that Scott was allowed to talk to him but not me.

"Brie?"

Oh god.

"H-hey." I greeted turning to see Scott's mom right as she walked out of one of the rooms with a clipboard in her hand.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, her eyes drifting to where Derek was beside me.

"We just came to visit someone…" I stuttered out, trying to not appear so nervous I could jump out of my skin at any moment.

"Oh yeah?" She questioned, "Who?"

"Oh well, uh… I don't know."

"You don't know which patient you came to see?" She questioned, with a look on her face to show she clearly didn't believe me.

"Yeah, I know it sounds weird… but it's totally not weird at all, because, uh… I'm going to meet them for the first time –today." Oh my god, I've been around Stiles for far too long. I'm coming up with the worst lie ever, quick think of something to save yourself.

"Derek's going to introduce us." I almost yelled as I slapped Derek's arm and then stared down to the floor, my very soul withering and dying inside of me. I should have just stayed at home, red eyes or not.

Crossing her arms over her chest she gave a slow nod before, she said, "Uh huh…"

She's not buying this, she's not buying a damn word of this. I am sooo busted!

"My uncle is in the long term care wing." Derek spoke up, coming to my rescue. "I know it's after visiting hours, but we'll be quick." I looked up to see he was offering her a smile to sell the lie. Who knew he could be charming when he had to?

"Oh." She said checking the time on her watch and nodded before saying, "Yeah, just make it a quick visit."

"We will." I smiled turning to walk away until it happened, she managed to embarrass me in a way that only mothers could manage to do.

"I was just asking Scott the other day why I never see you at the house anymore, he didn't tell me you were seeing someone."

No, no, no. She didn't just say that. I'm pretty sure my blood is glowing under my skin from head to toe. Yeah, I should have just stayed home in the empty house. Anything would be better than this, even facing off against whatever red eyed creature I'd seen in the woods.

Think Brie, think of something!

But I couldn't, my brain was as blank as my eyes as I stood there trying to pick my jaw up from the floor, continuing to stare at her from over my shoulder.

She looked down to the clipboard in her hands and just barely missed the horrified expression on my face.

I thought my shoes had been glued to the floor, considering all I wanted to do was run and find some Aubrie sized rock to hide under but I couldn't even take a step. That was until I noticed the distance between myself and Scott's mom was growing larger. Shaking my head I looked down to Derek's hand in mine as he dragged me away from the prying nurse.

"Bye!" I called out, tossing my other hand up in one of my signature awkward waves before I turned around to make sure Derek wasn't going to lead me right into a wall or something.

It wasn't until that moment I became fully aware of our skin touching, as he kept a tight grip on my hand and walked so fast I was stumbling to try and keep up. We're away from Scott's mom, we don't need to sell the sham relationship anymore – he could let go of my hand, or I could pull away.

Glancing back down to our joined hands, I internally shrugged and thought, well, he doesn't _have_ to let go…

As if the moment couldn't get awkward enough, cue my telltale heart to pick up speed and betray me.

Maybe he can't hear it, hospitals are noisy even at night. Yeah, I'm sure he has no clue his touch his making my heart threaten to burst through my ribcage.

I knew better, but I stole a glance at him anyways to see he was watching me.

Scratch everything I'd been thinking that made me feel better, he hears it. He knows what's happening. I'm just going to pull my hand away from his grip…

But before I could he practically pushed me into a room and let go of my hand before he pulled the door shut behind us and faced me.

What is this… what's happening? I wondered, my eyes dropping to his lips before I almost slapped myself to remind me that I needed to focus. Derek Hale was the last person I needed in my life. God, I don't know what's happening to me.

Giving me a hard look he raised his eyebrows as he pointed towards the door and continued to stare at me expectantly.

I knew he wanted an answer as to what the hell happened with Melissa McCall back there, I'd love a satisfactory answer myself –but I don't think either of us is going to get one.

"I don't know, I panicked!" I whisper yelled at him, before adding, "I don't do well under pressure…"

"You think?" He hissed before shaking his head and shooting me another look before he walked over and moved the curtain to reveal where the bus driver was asleep in his bed.

I stood at Derek's side as he demanded the man open his eyes. I glanced over my shoulder and wondered why there wasn't a police officer stationed outside of his door. Then I remembered everyone thought it was an animal attack.

Finally, Garrison Meyers opened his eyes and looked over at me confused before his eyes drifted up to Derek and his heart monitor started to beep.

"What do you remember?" Derek gruffly asked him.

"Hale…" He hoarsely breathed.

My eyes widened and I looked over to Derek who looked just as shocked as I was.

"How do you know my name?" He questioned.

"I'm sorry." He said, his eyes full of honesty as he looked to the werewolf at my side.

"How do you know me?" Derek repeated.

"I'm sorry." He repeated, before he pulled in a shaky breath and leaned his head back on the pillows, appearing to hold back his emotions.

"What's going on?" I whispered, looking to Derek. But he didn't have an answer for me.

When the man's monitors started to beep louder, he shook his head and glanced at me, "We need to go."

We left the room and hurried back towards the door we'd came in through, luckily Scott's mom was nowhere in sight this time and we made it back to the car without incident.

As we drove back towards my house, I bit down on my tongue to keep from unleashing the storm of questions I had because I was pretty sure Derek didn't know much more than I did now.

At one point he shook his head and muttered about how it didn't make any sense.

"Is there anyone else we can talk to?" I finally asked, looking at him with a hopeful expression.

He shrugged, either not having an idea or just not feeling particularly like sharing.

Okay then… change of subject.

"Thanks for helping me with Scott's mom back there…" I breathed, looking down to my hand as I remembered the feeling of his flesh against mine. "You saved us with the story about your uncle."

"It wasn't a lie." He said, quietly. Almost as if I wasn't supposed to hear it.

I stared at him with a somber look on my face. His family was almost all wiped out by the fire, then his sister gets killed and apparently he has an uncle in the wing of the hospital where people only leave in a body bag.

"I'm sorry…" I breathed, I felt like I was always saying that to him, but I didn't know what else to say.

He remained quiet, only it wasn't the same comfortable atmosphere we'd formerly been driving in.

As we neared my house I saw my aunts Explorer in the driveway I breathed out a sigh of relief, I wasn't going to be home alone at least.

When he pulled to a stop, I looked over at him and gave a small appreciative smile as I said, "Thanks."

He nodded but didn't say anything. I don't know what I even wanted him to say in that moment, but I wanted him to say _something_.

"Brie." He caught me right as I was starting to shut the door to the car.

"Yeah?" I asked, hopefully not sounding too hopeful.

"Your bag." He stated as he handed me the plastic bag from the gas station I'd left in the floorboard.

"Oh… thanks –again." I awkwardly said, with a long face. I wished he'd say something but I wasn't hoping for more than that.

Once I got inside the house I saw my aunt in the kitchen, watching through the window as Derek drove off.

"That's certainly not Stiles' car…" Sheila said with a smile as she walked back over to the open dishwasher and started to put the clean dishes into the cabinet.

"Yeah, a new… friend, gave me a ride." I said, wondering what exactly I should call Derek, Friend might have seemed too much –but I didn't feel like his enemy anymore.

"Is this new friend a guy?" she pushed, flashing me a smile over her shoulder.

"Yeah…" I admitted, not sure why I was smiling. But I reached up and held onto the sides of my face to stop the smiling.

"Well, who is he?" She asked setting a plate down on the counter.

Watching as she picked up another plate I admitted, "His name's Derek, uh, Derek Hale."

As soon as the name left my mouth there was a loud shattering sound as the plate fell from her hands and onto the floor.

"Are you okay?" I asked rushing over to her.

"Did you say Hale?" She asked her eyes wide and voice a little airy.

"Yeah, Derek Hale –do you know him?" I questioned.

"No, not him." She answered as she looked down to the broken glass on the floor.

"Did you know someone in his family?" I pushed, not sure why I was having to pry to get a simple answer out of everyone that night.

"No, I've just heard of the Hale family… the fire." She breathed before she shook her head, and plastered on a smile.

"Can you grab the broom and tray from the closet? Be careful where you step." She said, and I nodded. But now I got the feeling she was hiding something from me too. What is going on with this town and everyone I know lately?

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><p><strong>AN -** ** ^_^ Hey guys, thanks so much for reading! I really hope you all liked the chapter. Don't forget to follow me on Tumblr (the link is up on my profile) I post chapter snippets and update sets and other fanfiction related things on there! What did you all think of the chapter and all of the Derek/Brie time?**


	7. Kicking My Heels

**It's Just a Trick of the Moonlight**

**Chapter Seven – Kicking My Heels  
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><p>"Morning." I groggily said as I found my Aunt Sheila in the kitchen standing over the coffee pot while she waited on a new batch to brew.<p>

"Morning sweetie." She greeted back sounding more tired than I was.

She'd been acting strange since the night before when I'd mentioned Derek's last name, but she wasn't offering up any information on the subject matter.

After getting her a cup of coffee she sat down on one of the tall stools at the center island and grabbed the remote for the small television that was mounted under the cabinets. She turned on the news and it opened up with a story of how the driver who'd been attacked had finally succumbed to his wounds.

My eyes widened –I'd just been in his hospital room the night before with Derek.

"What a shame."

"Yeah, it's terrible." I nodded, as I started to stand up but stopped when she said, "We should send his wife flowers and a card or something."

"Did you know him?" I asked, not able to hide my surprise.

"Mhmm." She nodded taking another drink from her mug, "Garrison was the one who trained me back when I first got my job at the insurance office."

"I thought he was a bus driver…"

"He got fired a few years after I started there." She added before she stood up and looked around, seeming worried.

"Sheila, you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine honey. Do you wanna grab some breakfast, I don't have to go into work until later today." She offered, but I could tell she was trying to hide something behind her normally genuine smile.

"Nah, I think I'm just gonna lay around the house today. I'll fix something to eat later." I said before getting a glass of orange juice and retiring to the living room where I flipped through about five hundred channels of absolutely nothing worth watching.

Well… I thought to myself, there is always more to be learned about werewolves. Shutting the TV off; I returned my empty glass to the kitchen and went upstairs to my room.

But when I opened my door and walked in I nearly screamed when I saw Derek sitting in the chair at my desk, flipping through a stack of papers I'd printed off about werewolves –acting like he had every right to be there and hadn't broken into my house.

"How did you even get in here?" I gasped, shutting the door behind me and staring at him wide eyed as I started to become aware that I was still in my sleeping shorts and tank top from the night before, not to mention I'd barely glanced in a mirror since I got up –my hair had to be a hot mess.

Closing the packet of papers he looked up at me, completely ignoring my question as he pointed out, "You know most of this isn't true, right? You can't just google werewolves and have all the answers."

"Maybe, but seeing as how you turned one of my best friend's into a werewolf, I feel like I should learn a thing or two." I countered, crossing my arms over my chest.

"I'm not the one who bit, Scott." He asserted as he stood up, his black clothes seeming misplaced in my room filled with light tan and pink colors.

"But-"

"Scott showed up last night, accusing me of killing the bus driver. He thought I bit him too, but I didn't… there's another, an alpha. It's the most dangerous of my kind and that's what turned Scott and attacked the driver –not me." He filled me in, catching me a little off guard by his openness, but I figured since he'd told Scott this he knew I'd find out anyways.

Still… did he have to show up in my bedroom to tell me this?

"There's something else you need to know." He added taking a step closer and my eyes dropped down to his lips before I could help it.

"An alpha has red eyes."

I resisted the urge to just smile and nod at what he said, until it finally sunk in and my eyes flicked back up to meet his as I gasped, "Glowing red eyes? Like the eyes I saw…"

He nodded and my legs felt weak but somehow I made it over to the foot of my bed and sat down; my breathing already labored as I asked, "What does it want with me?"

"I don't know." He admitted, pausing for a moment before he sat down beside me and continued, "But I tracked it's scent to your yard once before."

"So that's why you were watching my house?" I realized out loud.

"I told you I wasn't spying on you." He nodded, but that still didn't answer why he watched me at school too.

"Okay… but that doesn't explain why you're following me to school too."

"Because I don't know what the alpha wants, I don't know if he's just drawn to the property here or if it's you that he's after." He explained.

And once I looked over at him it started to occur to me that Derek Hale wasn't only in my house, not only in my room –but he was on my bed. Sitting fully clothed of course, but the thought still made my heartrate pick up.

I ignored it and hoped he either wasn't listening or had also chosen to ignore it.

"So you're trying to protect me?" I asked, my voice barely over a whisper but instead of a straight forward answer all I got was one of his intense stares and a silent refusal to answer me.

I'm going to just take that as a yes.

"Why? I mean, half the time you act like you can't stand to be around me… so why would you be trying to look out for me." I pushed, half not believing that I was actually stepping up and asking him this. But it was questions like this that haunted me and kept me awake at night, I just needed some kind of answer.

Come on Derek, I pretty much saved your ass from those hunters –the least you could do is be honest with me. I'm a big girl, I can take it.

"You wouldn't understand." He dismissed as he stood up and crossed my room, leaving me more confused than before.

How does he know I won't understand something if he doesn't even try to explain it?

I started to ask what he was talking about until I saw him pick my phone up from my dresser.

"What are you doing?" I gasped, starting towards him.

Not looking up from the screen he stated in a flat tone, "I'm trying to catch the alpha and trying to keep it away from you, but I can't be everywhere at once. So if you see those red eyes again, you need to call me as soon as it happens."

Raising up slightly and looking down I saw him save him number to my contact list. Is this really happening? Did he really just give me his number?

As he pushed my phone into my hands I looked down and verified, he did. He totally did! I have no idea why, but internally I'm almost doing a happy dance –almost.

"So you want me to call you?" I stammered out, cringing my way through the entire short and simple question but remained helpless to stop and save myself.

He stopped in front of my window and looked back to me as he restated, "If you see the red eyes again, call me."

Just nod and accept the answer Brie, play it cool and like the idea of having his number at your fingertips isn't enough to make your heart burst straight through your ribcage.

Nodding I opened my mouth to tell him bye but instead I asked, "Is, uh, is that the only time you want me to call you?"

What is it about him that makes my mouth so unpredictable? He gets around me and I have no filter at all, I need to be stopped.

"Why else would you call me?"

His tone was gruff as always and his face still with a stone expression but for half a second I could have sworn there was a flicker of something else in his eyes, and I'd almost bet my life that I saw the corner of his mouth twitch –possibly even his lips threatening to turn upwards into a smile for once. But looking at him now, I was beginning to wonder if I imagined all of that.

"Oh, uh… I don't know. Just if… something came up that I felt the needed to call you about?"

Somebody stop me, this is getting more painful by the second.

"Something like what?" He asked, still not giving anything away from his expression. How the heck does he do that? He hides everything and I can't even be in the same room as him without my telltale heart giving me away.

"I don't know… something important…" I breathed, second guessing the entire thing. I'm pretty sure talking on the phone with him would be a completely one sided conversation with me having to pry every single response from him until he finally just got so annoyed that he just hung up on me. And things would get even more awkward because I'd call back to see if we lost connection or if he really -Never mind, Derek. Forget I said anything –I will only call you if I see the red eyes again.

I watched as he opened my window and I guessed he was going to just jump from it, and probably land perfectly –totally badass.

"Do you have texting?"

Stupid, stupid question Aubrie. Everyone has a texting plan now days. When he shot me a look I clutched my phone tightly in my hand in case he came back over to me and tried to delete his number, I intended to fight him on it. Don't ask me why, I have no idea why I want his number so bad when I have no intention of ever calling him. But knowing his number was locked way inside of my phone, suddenly made my cellphone feel like my most prized possession and I wasn't going to give it up.

Without another word, he turned and jumped from my window and just like I'd predicted; landed perfectly on the ground below before he started to walk towards the woods without looking back to my house.

Well, he didn't really say no to the texting…

I quickly typed out a text saying I was only texting so he'd have my number too. But now came the hard part –smiley face or no smiley?

Clearly the guy could use some more smiles in his life, but I don't want to be _that _person who scares someone else off after one text. I'm just going to go for it.

I added in the smiley face and read back over the text before I hit send, at the last second regretting my choice to send a smiley face in the text, I smacked my phone several times but it had already sent.

Maybe it didn't go through… I thought as I looked back out of the window and saw him come to a stop as he pulled his own phone from his pocket. It sent. The smiley face text freaking sent, of course it did.

Moments later he looked back towards the house, his eyes immediately going up to where I was standing at my window still.

Don't do it, Aubrie. Don't you dare wave at him- too late, my hand was already up waving at him. Glancing over at it; I thought _traitor_.

He looked back down to his phone once more, probably wondering what on earth was wrong me with me, I had no idea myself, before he tucked his phone away and disappeared into the woods.

**~(Monday morning)~**

Pulling open the door to the school I walked in pausing for a moment to survey the crowd before adjusting the bag on my shoulder and smiling. I'm not sure if it's because I'm wearing a new dress or that my hair actually curled perfectly that morning…maybe it was because I'd spent the morning thinking about the encounters I'd had with Derek and the fact that his number was in my phone, but for some reason the sun seemed to be shining a little brighter when I woke up.

I smiled at some lacrosse players standing near a bank of lockers; to my surprise they smiled back and a few of them even nodded at me.

This is going to be a great day, I just know it. With the way I'm feeling, nothing can bring me down.

Or at least, I thought so until I saw my best friends –both of them walking my way at a fast pace like they were on a mission. Well, Scott was moving at a fast, determined pace while Stiles seemed to be stumbling after him, like his legs still weren't awake.

"Hey guys." I greeted trying to keep a smile on my face, even though I had a pretty good idea why they both looked so mad.

"You!" Stiles accused pointing a finger at me and now seeming at a total and complete loss for words. That's rare.

"Me?"

"You!" He yelled again, still shaking his finger at me.

"You know when you point one finger at me, you're pointing the others at yourself…"

"My mom told me she saw you at the hospital with Derek!" Scott yelled matching Stiles' tone as he stared at me in shock.

"Well…" I started to say but before I could Stiles slapped Scott's arm and demanded, "Tell her the other thing."

"I've been trying not to think about the other thing." Scott groaned at him before he looked back to me and said, "She said you were… dating him."

I would have given anything to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation, I can only imagine that Scott's face was priceless!

"Derek! She said that you were dating Derek Hale!" Stiles finally found his words and continued to yell at me.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the lacrosse player's that I'd smiled at, whisper to themselves before moving down the hallway way from me.

"I'm not dating Derek, okay? So you can both calm down and stop yelling at me." I shot back at them.

Good god, if I was dating Derek I could only imagine their reaction if they're freaking out this bad already.

"Ask her." Stiles said nudging Scott again who rolled his eyes and said, "I don't want to ask her, you ask her."

"Ask me what?" I groaned looking between their faces.

"Why were you holding his hand?" Stiles finally questioned and I had to hold back a laugh at the looks on their faces.

"I wasn't really holding his hand…" I said, fighting with everything in me to keep a straight face, but there it was. That damn smile I couldn't seem to contain when I talked about him, try as I might my lips curved up.

I have to figure out a way to control this thing, it's getting out of hand. I thought as I held onto the sides of my face and forced the smile from my lips.

"Why are you smiling?" Stiles asked, his voice almost a gasp.

"I'm not." I replied, my voice distorted from keeping my face in my hands.

Letting go of my face I pulled in a deep breath and asked, "Why is it okay for you guys to talk to Derek, but not me? There's no difference."

"There is such a difference... a bug, big difference." Stiles cut me off.

Nodding Scott said, "A huge difference."

Uh huh, now I'm dying to hear the theory behind this one.

Crossing my arms over my chest, my eyebrows raised in question, "Okay, how? Tell me how it's so different."

"Because you're you." Scott said motioning to me with his hand as Stiles nodded almost frantically beside him.

"Meaning what? That I'm a girl?"

"Yes." Stiles said then his eyes widened as he read my angry expression and began to backpedal, "I mean, no."

"Then how is it different?" I demanded to know, the hilarity of the situation had worn off and now I was starting to actually get angry with them.

"Look…" Scott breathed, stepping closer, "There's another werewolf and Derek wants to use me to find it-"

"The alpha." I agreed nodding.

"How do you know that?" Stiles asked, bouncing on his feet.

"Derek told me. But what does that have to do with me?"

They exchanged looks and I was beginning to feel like I can't believe a single word they say. They're either hiding things from me or lying to me.

"Derek made it clear that he needs me to find the alpha, because I'm somehow connected to it. Brie, all we're saying is that –we don't know how far he might go to get my help." Scott said, his tone soft like he was trying not to hurt me, but it was a little too late. I knew what he was implying.

"You're saying that Derek what? Might be using me to get to you?" The words left my mouth laced with every bit of emotion I was feeling.

They both remained silent –and the silence was my answer.

Suddenly the sun didn't seem as bright as I'd originally thought when I first got there. Nothing felt the way it had moments ago.

"Well you don't have anything to worry about… we weren't holding hands, he was dragging me away from your mom because I couldn't come up with a good enough lie for why we were are the hospital, okay? I guess your mom just assumed we were together because he's the first guy she's seen me with besides you." I assured them, shaking my head and biting down on my bottom lip.

"I didn't think we had anything to worry about." Stiles cut in smiling and clearly not realizing I was on the verge of taking both their heads off.

"But thanks for letting me know that you guys think the only way I could get a guy would be if he was using me to get to one of you. Really, that's just what I needed today." I breathed as I pushed between them.

"Brie!"

I ignored them and kept walking until they both caught up with me at my locker. Both of them spilling apologies and excuses that I wanted no part of.

"We just don't want you to get hurt." I heard one of them say, I'm not even sure which one but that was the last straw and I slammed my locker shut, spinning around to face them as Stiles nervously took a step backwards.

"Maybe I want to get hurt."

The confused expressions on their face matched mine as I shook my head and breathed, "No, that came out wrong –I don't want to get hurt. I just mean that maybe that shy girl you befriended years ago has grown up and doesn't need to be protected."

"You have grown up…" Scott agreed nodding before breathing out, "We've all changed."

"But Brie when we met you-" Stiles started to say, but I'd heard enough.

I cut him off, "I was this awkward little sixth grader who everyone picked on because I was the new girl and so shy that everyone thought I was mute. I know, but I'm not that girl anymore." I looked between them, suddenly not able to hold my anger at either of my friends.

They were just doing what they'd always done; looked out for me. Since we'd met they'd been fighting my battles for me and they both protected me the best they could from the bullies in middle school.

But I'm not that scared, shy, awkward little girl anymore… well, maybe I'm still awkward but I blame them because I've been hanging around them for so long.

"And when it comes to me and Derek, there's no _me and Derek. _I wouldn't even call us friends, really. He acts like we're sworn enemies most of the time, I don't know what his problem is. But you're freaking out over nothing." I added with a laugh, before my eyebrows lowered at the thoughts. Did they have reason to be worried?

Shaking my head before they could catch my unsure expression , I quickly told them they were forgiven and changed the subject. But as they started to talk about lacrosse I was barely listening.

I mean, logically I knew the chances of something ever developing between myself and Derek were slim to none. Not only was he probably the hottest guy I'd _ever _seen, he was older and probably also the rudest person I'd ever met. Then there was the fact that he wasn't human –which terrifies me. I already live in a constant state of fear that Scott will shift and rip me to shreds one day. But… he had been watching me to protect me from the alpha…

My thoughts were interrupted when the morning bell rang through the school halls and Scott and Stiles groaned in unison before saying they'd see me at lunch.

Looking down to make sure I'd gotten the right books, I reminded myself that Derek was the last person I needed to be getting close to or even be thinking about.

**~()~**

At the end of the day I was headed for my locker with a very precise idea of how the rest of my day was going to play out; study in the school library till about 4 when Sheila would pick me up after work and then I was going to talk her into going to the mall –because I'm in dire need of retail therapy and the only female friend I have is Allison, who will be busy _studying _with Scott tonight.

No matter, Sheila's always sort of been more like an older sister than my aunt and we've always been close.

But my plans for the day were ruined when I was walking down the hallway minding my own business and someone grabbed my arm and roughly pulled me to the side.

Jerking my arm back I held up the books in my arms, ready to beat the person who'd done it until I realized it was Derek.

"Derek?" I nearly screamed, still fighting the urge to hit him over the head with my books for scaring me like he did.

But the urge soon faded when I realized how pale and sickly he looked, immediately anger turned into concern.

"Oh my god, you look awful! Are you-"

"Where's Scott? I need to find him." He cut me off, even being sick apparently didn't improve this guy's manners.

"He's, uh… studying at Allison's after school." I managed to say, as I chocked back the sick feeling at seeing blood rolling out from the unbuttoned sleeve of his leather jacket.

I knew I shouldn't have eaten that extra slice of pizza for lunch, it's going to make it that much worse if it all comes up. Swallowing hard, I pulled my eyes away from the blood running down his hand.

"We have to find him before he leaves." His voice was gruff as usual and despite his condition, I started to grow angry at the tone of voice he used until I replayed what he said. He said 'we have to find him'. He said 'we'.

_We _as in the both of us, together –as a single unit.

I opened my mouth to ask when exactly we'd progressed into friends, or to the point of being a _we, _but I didn't get the chance when he started to slide down the wall some like he was going to collapse on the floor.

Without even thinking, I rushed forward and steadied him. "What happened?" I demanded to know, he looked even worse up close.

"I was shot… and if we don't fond Scott, I'm dead." He breathed, his eyes locked with mine. And there it was again, that term he'd chosen to use for the day because he needed something from me; _we_.

Dead! If we don't find him, Derek's dead… All he managed to do was open up an entire new set of questions, I thought one of the upsides to being a werewolf was being able to heal from wounds –even gunshots.

The hallway crowd was starting to thin out, I knew my friend's phone would still be silenced from the school day.

"Our best bet is to catch him before he leaves… come on." I said, nodding for him to follow me, but as we started down the hallway, it was clear he was growing even weaker and could barely keep up with my pace.

I paused and waited until he caught up with me, knowing we needed to hurry; he looked like he was going to fall down at any second. I grabbed onto his non-bleeding arm and pulled it over my shoulders as I quietly said, "We have to hurry if we're going to get to him in time." Scott was excited to be spending time with Allison after school and I figured he'd be rushing there as soon as he could.

As we walked down the hallway, more and more people stared at us. Probably because Derek looked like he was about to drop dead at any moment, either way I didn't like the attention it was bringing me and if it hadn't been a life or death situation –I would have said he was on his own.

Just as we neared the doors, Jackson came out of the nurse's office with a hand on the back of his neck. He looked at me with a confused expression and then his gaze went to Derek, before he jumped backwards like he was terrified. I rolled my eyes at him and pushed open the doors, almost falling over as Derek slumped farther against me.

With a groan I planted my feet firmly against the sidewalk beneath me until I was sure we were staying vertical.

"You're going to have to help." I groaned, struggling to keep the both of us up.

"I am." He growled back.

"Well, I don't know how much longer I can do this. I do yoga, not strength training and you're like all muscle…" I breathed, my eyes drifting over to the snug faded black shirt that was hugging his muscled frame from beneath his leather jacket.

Focus Brie, you can check him out when he's not about to just keel over on top of you at any moment –not that I'd been checking him out.

"Okay, look my car's across the parking lot. Get me over to it and then you find Scott."

"Alright… let's go." I said, readjusting his arm on my shoulders and trying to convince myself that my heart was racing from the exertion of the task at hand and not because his arm was around me.

We'd made it about halfway across when, he started to stumble again and my legs were shaking from both our weight. "Derek, we're almost-" My reassurance stopped with a gasp, as I saw a car headed right for us. I pinned my eyes shut, it was becoming clear that Derek Hale was going to be the death of me, one way or another. At first I thought it was because he was going to kill me, but now I'm going to be hit by a car for just trying to help him.

But when there was no painful collision, no sounds of screaming from witnesses and no white light –I realized we hadn't been hit. Popping one eye open but still cringing, I was relieved to see the car had not only stopped just a few feet away from mowing me and Derek over –but that car also happened to be a blue jeep, Stiles' blue jeep.

I started to yell for Stiles to get out of the car and help us, but I didn't get the chance as Derek lost his balance and my shaky legs were no help when he not only collapsed but pulled me down with him, luckily for me –he broke my fall.

"What the hell is going on?" Stiles asked, in a scrambled run as he raced over to us where I was trying to get off of Derek without hurting him even worse than he already was.

"Where's Scott?" I asked, practically throwing myself to the pavement beside Derek, as I looked up at Stiles and said, "We need to find Scott now!"

The sounds of car horns filled my ears as students let us know exactly how impatient they were to get home and how they felt about us blocking the parking lot exit.

Well, sorry guys… but I've got a werewolf problem that ranks above your homework and whatever else you've got going on.

"What are you doing here?" Scott asked, seeming to almost appear out of nowhere as he dropped to the ground in front of us and I sat up rubbing my sore elbow and Stiles leaned down to pick up my books and folders that I'd dropped.

"I was shot." Derek breathed, managing to sit up.

"He's not looking so good, dude." Stiles pointed out. As if we couldn't tell.

"Why aren't you healing?" Scott questioned, and I used my good arm to shove the books Stiles handed me into my messenger bag.

"I can't. It was a different kind of bullet." Derek admitted, but barely got his sentence out as Stiles gasped, "A silver bullet?"

"No, you idiot."

"Wait, wait… that's what she meant when she said you had 48 hours." Scott seemed to realize out loud.

"What? Who?" I questioned, surprised at how panicked my own voice was.

"The one who shot him." Scott said, his tone simple –almost as if what he was saying wasn't a big deal at all.

I started to stand up but stopped when Derek pulled in a ragged breath and grabbed onto his bleeding arm, I looked over to see his eyes were flickering between his normal color and his werewolf blue.

"What are you doing? Sop that!" Scott demanded.

"I don't think he can." I softly said, growing more concerned by the second as I faced him.

Nodding Derek agreed, "That's what I'm trying to tell you, I can't."

"Derek, get up." Scott ordered, nodding for Stiles to help him. As they pulled the wounded werewolf to his feet, I also stood up and checked our surroundings for any lost papers or folders. When I looked back up they'd loaded him into Stiles' jeep.

Rushing over to them, I listened as Derek said that Scott needed to find the bullet he was shot with at the Argent's house or he'd die.

"Why should I help you?" Scott complained and I shot him a disapproving look.

"Because you need me." Derek reminded him.

Sighing Scott said, "Fine, I'll try…"

"I hate you so much for this." Stiles groaned as he started his jeep back up.

"I'm coming with you." I said as I started to pull the passenger door open.

"You guys get him out of here." Scott agreed, but then I saw a paper blow past the driver's side of the jeep and realized it had to be mine.

I rushed after it, but luckily Allison caught it as she was headed towards us.

"Hey, is this yours?" She asked holding it out with a friendly smile.

"Uh, yeah… thanks." I breathed, hoping she wouldn't ask about Derek.

"What's he doing here?" She questioned.

"Uh…" I stammered.

"Stiles and Brie are just giving him a ride home, right?" Scott asked, rushing over to us.

"Yeah." I nodded so fast it made me dizzy.

"I though you said you weren't friends with him?" She pushed.

Oh god, this isn't going to end well. I'm just going to slip away, get into the jeep and leave.

"Oh, uh… not really friends with him, no I'm not." Scott lied, as I took a slow step away from them.

"We're still studying together, right?" He quickly added in, but she was focused on his first answer.

"Which one is it? You're friends with him or not friends with him?" Allison asked.

I took another step, but moved too fast this time and my movement caught Scott's eye.

"I'm not friends with him." Scott assured her before nodding to me and saying, "Aubrie is… she's friend's with him."

I came to a stop with wide eyes and stared at him as his eyes pleaded for me to agree.

"Yeah…" I breathed plastering on a less than believable smile.

Allison turned her focus on me as her forehead lined with confusion, "You seemed to barely know him the night of the party…"

"Yeah, well… a lot has changed since then." Scott answered for me, before he squeezed my arm and said through his teeth in a nervous smile, "Right, Brie?"

"Yeah, totally. So much has changed… Derek and I are great friends now." What is happening to me? I'm becoming the world's worst liar.

"You can even ask my mom." Scott seemed to say in a fit of nervous laughter.

Scratch that; I'm the world's _second_ worst liar.

"Why would I ask your mom about that?" Allison said, then looked between us waiting on an answer.

I looked over to Scott thinking how convenient it was that Scott wanted me to play friends with Derek when it suited him, but yet just this morning he and Stiles were both freaking out on me for even talking to him.

Scott's eyes widened as he looked at me for help, smirking at him I then turned and gave a smile to Allison as I said, "You guys have fun studying, I'd better go –Stiles is holding up the line."

Scott stared at me in disbelief as I left him alone to stumble over his excuses and lies to Allison.

"Come on." Stiles complained as I walked past the driver's side of the jeep, nodding I handed him my bag through the open window and he threw it into the backseat.

Pulling open the passenger door, I looked in to where Derek was sitting. Normally I just climbed over Scott in the passenger seat to get to the back, but this wasn't Scott. This was Derek who I could barely be in the same room with before my heart sped up and he stared at me.

This would be simple enough, just step up into the floorboard, one foot at a time and carefully maneuver my way between the seats and into the back –shouldn't be that difficult.

Nodding to agree with myself, I stepped up into the jeep –trying to avoid looking at Derek as I got my other leg into the car and started to try and move between the front seats but my legs got tangled with Derek's in the floorboard and next thing I knew, I'd landed partially on Derek's lap and partially down between the seats.

"Are you okay?" Stiles asked, laughing as I tried to straighten out my legs in the cramped space but I didn't have room to move.

"I… I think I'm stuck." I finally admitted after a few moments of flailing around helplessly.

Stiles was laughing so hard he couldn't help me, which left the task up to Derek, who reached down and effortlessly pulled me from my partial prison between the seats. But since there wasn't much room in the jeep and since he had to pull me towards him to get me up from the black hole between the seats, I ended up straddling his lap facing him. And I'm pretty sure my heart stopped when I looked up and realized how close our faces were, not to mention I was so _very_ aware of the warm sensations his hand was leaving on my side.

"Brie!" Stiles called out, getting my attention and I snapped my gaze over to him to see he had a shocked expression on his face as he nodded behind him and said, "Just get in the back already."

"Oh right." I breathed, before apologizing to Derek for the uncomfortable situation, even though it seemed like I was the only one nervous from the encounter. But at least my cheeks held off on growing dark until I was out off of Derek's lap and safely seated out of view behind him.

* * *

><p><strong>AN- Thanks so much for reading! ^_^ I owe a huge thank you to everyone who has been added this story, I'm so glad you're liking it!**

**I'm super excited to get the next chapter posted because it's from Derek's point-of-view. I won't switch POV's very often, but I think it's important here to show what's been going on inside of Derek's head when it comes to Brie.**

**Don't forget to leave a review and let me know if you're reading and you can always follow me on Tumblr for fanfiction related things, including chapter sneak peeks!**


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